Being #1

Each day when my students come to class, they present a "ticket" to class. On the ticket, they have written comments on a pre-assigned topic. A recent topic: "Some economists believe that China will surpass the U.S. as the #1 economy in the world within 10 years."

Some of my students' comments:

"China can achieve much of what it wants because of its sheer dominance in world affairs. It may make many enemies in the world."

"Maybe China will take the place of the U.S. as #1 economic power, but not in 10 years, maybe 100 years. China still has many problems to solve, including destruction of the environment, pollution, insufficient land to grow wheat and corn, and a population that is too big. Another problem is the growing gap between the rich and poor."

"No. China's technology is far behind the U.S."

"No, China cannot achieve this in 10 years. There are too many fake (knock-off) products in China. This is a large waste of raw and processed materials. Also, the U.S. is in an economic depression right now; when the U.S. overcomes it, it will develop fast and it will be difficult for China to catch up. There are so many corrupt officials in China, and some of them have escaped to foreign countries with a large amount of cash which leads to a huge loss for China."

"China is still a developing country. America is a highly developed one. There are many poor areas in China. There are also too many people in China, and this is a big problem. Many people in China don't receive a high quality education."

"Generally speaking, China has developed for only about 30 years, and its science and technology mainly depend on other developed countries. What's more, China's large population can also be the limiting factor in its efforts to be the world's largest economy." [I think many Americans believe that the Chinese must resent the "one child" policy. In fact, the opposite is true. Urban Chinese feel the policy is absolutely necessary, and the support for the policy is very widespread among urban people. In rural areas the view is different.]

We discussed the downside of being #1: lots of criticism from the rest of the world (the Chinese proverb for this is: "The higher, the colder."