Re: How does China's past inform its present?
- 6 years ago
In 1800, China had the world's biggest economy.
David Dollar: I resist the notion that somehow China is special or different from every other country, except in the obvious sense that every country has some unique characteristics. In terms of Chinese history, I think perhaps a lot of people in the west don't realize that you only have to go back to about 1800 to find that China was the largest economy in the world, and its per capita income was not significantly different from Western Europe. So China was a major economic power. China was a developed country. If you go back farther to about 1400, China had a major navy. It was exploring as far as Africa. China was a global power throughout much of history. And then starting some time around 1800 we can argue about the exact date China went into a period of decline largely, I think, because it cut itself off from the rest of the world. So it stopped having those benefits of exchange with other countries which are important for technological advance and prosperity. So I think Chinese people have a lot of innate pride about their past, and they are in some sense embarrassed that the country really declined and became extremely poor in the 20th century. You had the Japanese invasion. You had different European powers taking little pieces of China. So I think the Chinese people have a very strong drive to return to what they see as their rightful place in the world which is as a major economic, and cultural, and political center.
David Dollar: I resist the notion that somehow China is special or different from every other country, except in the obvious sense that every country has some unique characteristics. In terms of Chinese history, I think perhaps a lot of people in the west don't realize that you only have to go back to about 1800 to find that China was the largest economy in the world, and its per capita income was not significantly different from Western Europe. So China was a major economic power. China was a developed country. If you go back farther to about 1400, China had a major navy. It was exploring as far as Africa. China was a global power throughout much of history. And then starting some time around 1800 we can argue about the exact date China went into a period of decline largely, I think, because it cut itself off from the rest of the world. So it stopped having those benefits of exchange with other countries which are important for technological advance and prosperity. So I think Chinese people have a lot of innate pride about their past, and they are in some sense embarrassed that the country really declined and became extremely poor in the 20th century. You had the Japanese invasion. You had different European powers taking little pieces of China. So I think the Chinese people have a very strong drive to return to what they see as their rightful place in the world which is as a major economic, and cultural, and political center.