BAIMBA KAMARA, 42700.

POLITICS OF DEVELOPMENT, SEMESTER ONE ASSIGNMENT.

“THE RISE OF CHINA TO MODERNIZATION”

The World as we know it has always been massively unequal, the very idea of a “global north”
and “global south” should prove that. The former is characterized by high GDP per capita rates,
sufficient food to go round, quality education, capacity development opportunities and the best
healthcare available. There is more than enough commodity or product exposed to the average
consumer in these states. The latter is characterized by a struggle for survival, high costs of
living, oppression and the subtle art of escaping abject poverty, I’ll know because I live here. To
scholars such as Amatyr Sen, fighting to eradicate this inequality and allowing freedom is what
development is. In his famous 1999 work, he basically outlined three core values that
differentiates the global north (core) from the south (periphery), they include; the basic ability to
meet people’s needs (sustenance), a sense of worth and self-respect otherwise regarding not
being marginalized (self-esteem) and an expanded range of choices in both the political and
economic life of the people (freedom). His theory of development came to inspire the
millennium development goals. The absence however of a thorough description of power
relations that are responsible for underdevelopment through both national and international
political institutions shows that Sen’s work still is not as comprehensive as others make of it (but
that’s just my opinion), and raises the question of whether development as a subject can escape
its equivocal nature. Come to think of it, there are always grey areas in all the explanations put
forward for development thus far. Richard Chambers for example defines development as “good
change”, but since words are powerful weapons as Rebecca Solnit puts it, what is good may not
reflect the actual social practices in the state or the poor people’s views but may be decided by
actors in development and therefore may change from time to time depending on the perspective
of the actor in question (classical case study is life in Sierra Leone and what the MCC scorecard
portrays). Take for example, powerful corporations determine what is good in the U.S. If
development is actually good change, why should the global north not pursue it? Why must it be
of interest only to the global south? What has the global north done to take care of the injustices
occurring in their local regions?
Point is, development can mean anything as long as it has a perspective and concept, but that still
leaves it vulnerable to debunking. Pick my thought and I simply would refer to development as
growth. Since its inception in the academic field, theories have been analyzed to further expatiate
what development is; Modernization, Dependency, World system theory and Globalization. The
modernization theory lays claim that once developing societies come in contact with Western
Europe or North America they would be propelled towards modernization; in effect what they
mean is traditional societies are most likely to develop as they adopt more modern practices, and
this stands true for China when in the later parts of the 20th century moved from an agrarian
society to an industrialized form immediately after the Cultural Revolution. Using Rostow’s five
steps, we shall examine and analyze how China has risen from a rural agrarian society to an
industrialized state, lifting over 800million citizens out of poverty; interestingly enough the
entire process has actually taken over sixty years just as Rostow states and it is still ongoing.
BAIMBA KAMARA, 42700.
POLITICS OF DEVELOPMENT, SEMESTER ONE ASSIGNMENT.
ASSIGNMENT: Selecting any development theory of your choice, discuss its applicability
in any developing country of your choice.

“THE RISE OF CHINA TO MODERNIZATION”

Pre 1978, the Chinese Communist Party had involved mainly in a central economy that did not
favor market operations. The government controlled sectors in the economy which could amass
wealth such as production of steel, transportation, communication, media and even banks. There
are stories of how the government would apportion a sector of land to each grassroots household
for agricultural production only to provide a share of the yield/output at the end of each planting
season to the government, with the remainder kept for consumption in each household. The
system was developed after the widespread hunger and famine of 1959-62. This period
characterizes the “Traditional Society” of Rostow’s stages; subsistent agricultural based
economy with intensive labour, low levels of trading and inadequate knowledge on science and
technology. The pre-1978 period witnessed nearly 4 in every 5 Chinese working on agriculture.
Most of the farms in China were either household or may have been shifted to large communes.
With the emergence of the economic reforms under Xiaoping, the “Pre-conditions to Take-off’
laid bare, the second stage of Rostow’s model. The reforms brought in millions of rural
enterprises across the vast main lands of China. These little rural enterprises were the engines
that will power the national economic growth China shall enjoy in the years to come. Village
firms and industrial growth output increased by several folds and peasant workers force grew by
a hundred million, providing a cheap and reliable workforce for a hungry industrial settlement.
Before 1980, China was soon able to solve its food security problem which had given rise to the
famine. This rapid growth of village enterprises drove several of the rural farmers into other
sectors of specialization. There arose a diversification of China’s economy shifting it from just
producing goods to trade and manufacturing light consumer goods such as food stuff for
consumption, textiles, furniture, cotton and toys. This occurred between 1978 to the late 90s. By
1998 to mid-2000s the rapid production and manufacturing in several different sectors laid track
for the “take off” stage putting China on its “Drive to maturity”, both being the third and fourth
stages of Rostow’s model. What should be noted before understanding this point is that the 1978
reforms were not just aimed at revising economic policies but an entire reform to China’s means
of production, distribution and exchange. This point in mind, note also that Modernization
involves not just economic growth but political strides as well. Mao had engaged in several
ideological campaigns that did not favor growth such as “The hundred flower bloom, “The great
leap forward”, “Cultural Revolution” and “down to the countryside movement”. Xiaoping had
implemented policies that brought reform and liberalized trade in China, allowing for private
investments and the establishment of multinational corporations. China moved from a centrally
controlled economy to a neoliberal stance in which trade with other countries could also be
facilitated. Before long the World Bank saw it as the world’s fastest sustained expansion by a
major economy in history. China first of all moved from adopting policies that landlocked it to
only fossil fuels for energy to allowing renewables sources (Bio thermal, wind and solar)
providing more energy sources that’ll entice big corporations and multimillion dollar industries
such as MacDonald’s, AT&T, Walmart, Lenovo etc. Imagine how many people may have been
employed by Apple alone in a country that accounts for 20% of the company’s total revenue,
BAIMBA KAMARA, 42700.
POLITICS OF DEVELOPMENT, SEMESTER ONE ASSIGNMENT.
ASSIGNMENT: Selecting any development theory of your choice, discuss its applicability
in any developing country of your choice.

“THE RISE OF CHINA TO MODERNIZATION”

now add that to the list of other companies established across different regions, catch the point?
If you ask me, Foreigners were able to achieve what Chairman Mao could not with his 1953’s
“Five year plan”. Aside these corporations and industrial growth, China’s move to join the World
Trade Organization meant a liberal market and foreign trade. Before 1978, foreign investment
accounted only for less than 10% of China’s total GDP, today it accounts for about a 140 billion
dollars, forty times greater than the GDP of Sierra Leone for 2022. The importance of this is that
it has actually provided china with a lot of foreign currencies (particularly the dollar) necessary
to keep the currency value with the US Dollar at bay with its enormous foreign exchange
reserve. From famine to manufacturing, the Country now produces about 50% of the world’s
major industrial goods; ranging from crude steel, to cement, to coal, to vehicles and robots, to
trains and ships etc Mark the major growth and take off the country has witnessed, almost as if
they had discovered the secret recipe of Britain’s industrial revolution, lots of laughs. The
multinational companies as part of their corporate social responsibilities and for their operations
helped build infrastructure in a country that provides them cheap labor. Imagine China now has
about 28 provinces with high speed trains connecting the vast mainland and facilitating ease of
trade. Today as China pursues a win-win development strategy, global business engagement and
international infrastructure are amongst its priority focus areas it has had a cultural upheaval
from being collective, fatal and irrational to promoting individualism, rational and goal-oriented
thoughts. With a GDP of 18 trillion dollar (2022) and a foreign direct investment of 181 billion
dollars as of 2021, it shows high consumption rate amongst its citizens and a perfect consumer
society with fully developed welfare system, being Rostow’s fifth stage. It still has room for
improvement and with the rapid rate at which it is spreading its wings to allow for other
Nationalities to learn Chinese culture (the various Confucius institutes scattered across the globe,
even here at FBC) we might witness yet another “end of history” (Fukuyama, 1992) and China
might perhaps usher in a unipolar world order from a cultural and economic advancement.
However although it has an enormous GDP, it still accounts as a developing country due to the
low GDP per capita it amasses.
BAIMBA KAMARA, 42700.
POLITICS OF DEVELOPMENT, SEMESTER ONE ASSIGNMENT.
ASSIGNMENT: Selecting any development theory of your choice, discuss its applicability
in any developing country of your choice.

“THE RISE OF CHINA TO MODERNIZATION”

REFERENCES
-Jacobs, Juliet. “International Development Patterns, Strategies, Theories and Explanations.”
Geography of International Affairs. March
2015.https://www.e.education.psu.edu/geog128/node/719
-Rock, Melissa. “The Rise of China.” Geography of International Affairs.2020.
https://www.e.education.psu.edu/geog128/node/703
-Thompson, Karl. “Modernization Theory.” Revise Sociology. September
2017.https://revisesociology.com/2017/09/19/modernization-theory/
-Wayne M. Morrisson.“China’s Economic Rise: History, Trends, Challenges, and Implications
for the United States.”EveryCRSReport.com.June
2019.https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL33534.html#_Toc12530863
-Zuliu, Hu. & Khan S. Mohsin.“Economic Issues 8-Why is China Growing So
Fast.”International Monetary Fund.June
1997.https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/issues8/index.htm