INSIDE THE CHINA MIRACLE
Led by
Professor Lu Wei, USTC Business School
Michal McElwain Malur, Director of External Programs, School of Public Policy, GMU
Dr. Stuart Kewley, Professor Oxford University and Director of The Eurasia Consortium
When China awakes," Napoleon is said to have warned, "the world will shake." China is awake and the entire world feels the effect. A communist polity with a distinctly capitalist economy, China is the perfect case study for public policy students. Where better to study it that from within, in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong? And how better to study it than with experts in China able to give insights and experiences unavailable from outside?
China is projected to be the world's largest economy by 2025. China is now the fourth largest national economy in the world by nominal GDP (US$3.42 trillion in 2007) and in second place according to purchasing power parity GDP. The annual average GDP growth rate of 10 per cent since the 1990s has been fuelled in part by China?s export-oriented economy. Increasing the central government is encouraging the movement away from export led growth to growth based on domestic demand making China a huge market of an estimated 1.3 billion people, which absorbed US$953 billion of imports in 2007. In terms of regulatory considerations, China?s membership of the WTO (China joined in 2001) means that investment measures, intellectual property rights and trade in services (including financial services) are, in theory, subject to WTO regulation and infringements actionable under the WTO?s dispute resolution mechanism.
Such developments present enormous market opportunities for foreign enterprise. And yet China is still a difficult market to crack where only the patient and the tenacious can succeed, why?
Despite its rapid economic development, China is still a developing country with a limited, albeit a growing understanding, of contract law. Intellectual property rights although underwritten by international regulations are often breeched and patent infringement is a common occurrence. Locational costs in key economic centres, such as Shanghai, can be high and even simple things like finding a suitable Chinese business partner or staff can be difficult. Factor linguistic and cultural peculiarities into the business framework; "no guangxi (relationship) no business" and China can appear quite a daunting place to do business. The World Bank (2009), for example, ranked China as only 83 out of 181 economies when it came to the ease of doing business whereas the US was number 4.
This will be an education experience of a life-time in a nation in active transformation from isolated autarky to global leadership.
The
Study in China program is designed — - to
encourage experiential learning regarding Chinese perspectives on economic change
and trade strategies;
- to interact with practitioners, academics, and policy specialists; and to visit sites in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong. .
PROGRAM
FEE: $4,000 (includes tuition for 3 graduate credits)
CHINA ORIENTATION:
Saturday, May 14th from 10:00 - 11:30am. Rm 602 in Founder's Hall.
Course Requirements
Itinerary
Application and Contact
Hotels
School
of Public Policy's Study Abroad Programs
Chinese
Phrases
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Comments
from Program Participants:
"I
wouldn't trade this experience for anything. I hope GMU will continue it in future
years." "I
thought the program was great and run perfectly. This program really helped me
understand China and the impacts of rapid growth." "Lu
Wei was so wonderful and really made the trip terrific. He and Michal planned
a trip that did exactly what I expected." "Outstanding
speakers, great professors."
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