In mid 2010, China officially took over Japan as the number two economy behind the United States, after Japan reported its economy was valued at about $1.28 trillion in the second quarter of 2010. China’s economy is valued at $1.33 trillion. This historically unparalleled success leaping from a rural and minisculed economy to the second global powerhouse merely within 3 decades is undeniably attributed to Mr. Deng Xiaoping's economic policy.
Now the daunting challenge for the current and future Chinese leadership is how to constantly fine-tune the economic engine going forward in order to transform China's economy from a cheap-labor and manufacturing-oriented copy-cat economy into a truly advanced economy represented by the US and Japan. At least, as the world's No. 2 with a vast potential for future expansion, China can now sit confidently to dramatically attract more and more capital and talent to facilitate this magnificent process.
To lead the world economy, China must rapidly procure or develop leading technology in every field and sector. Towards this ultimatum, mass education and higher education must be reinforced to sustain both per capita productivity and high-end innovations.
Intellctual freedom has to be a basic element to encourage innovations and originality. We China at this historic juncture of massive expansion constantly need to have as many as possible the sort of creative thinkers and/or visionary masterminds like 孔子，孟子，老子，孫子（孫斌），莊子，墨子，荀子（荀況），韓非子（韓愈），毛子（毛澤東）。Perhaps an open-architectual and all inclusive society is conducive to such a dawn of fourishing indeas and originality as people would not be inhibited to think and innovate. This will foster the superiority of the Chinese society previously on display in the Spring-Autumn Era and the 盛唐時期。。The intellectual freedom and inclusivity should be confined, however, only within the sphere of the basic social law. Goverment must constantly reform itself to ensure the governing efficiency. All original and creative voices should be permitted to freely express for diversity of opinions and truthful debate, but they cannot be an excuse for overthrowing the government.
To maximize the potential for sustainable economic expansion, wealth distribution must be properly balanced so that the money-flow throughout the society is optimized. China' own history of 朱門酒肉臭-路有凍死骨 together with the demise of the extreme capitalism in the 19th century Europe offer compelling evidence that too much wealth concentration in the account of a few dignitaries can only bring out glooms of mainstream society and will ultimately doom any economic empire. The current US economic decline is another unravelling proof of the inevitable outcome. On the other hand, extreme socialism as China itself had experimented during the cultural revolution has also been proven as a miserable recipe for economic growth, as excessive equality can forfeit incentives for productivity and creativity. Therefore, China should never again go that extreme as to slaughter all the riches and confisticate all their wealth as communist China initially did when it won the revolution. Yes, it is wise to systematically incorporate the capicalistic ideas to fuel every phase of economic development. But we ought to constantly bear in mind, a country will be advancing unstoppable only if a good majority of its citizens, rather than a few privileged percent, are endowed with the right to think, create, consume and thrive, ensuring that the human resources within the society are maximally mobilized.
