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Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts

Saturday 1 April 2023

Chinese people are the happiest in the world, Ipsos survey shows

 


A photo taken on November 6, 2022 shows a wall displaying photos of smiling people at an exhibition themed "Forging Ahead in the New Era," which showcases China's achievements and development over the last decade, at the Beijing Exhibition Center. Photo: VCG


Chinese Path to happiness

"Are you happy?" This simple question is not only a daily greeting in Putonghua but also a yardstick on which global authorities attach importance when formulating policies to better serve their people. Recent international surveys showed that the happiness of people in the Chinese mainland has largely increased in recent years, with one of the survey reports suggesting that Chinese people are among the happiest in the world.

The Global Happiness 2023 Report, released by multinational market research and consulting firm Ipsos ahead of the International Day of Happiness on March 20, showed that Chinese people are the happiest among the 32 countries and regions sampled, with 91 percent of Chinese respondents saying they are generally happy, 12 percent increase from a decade ago.

The 2023 World Happiness Report, an annual publication by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network in which Nordic countries typically rank higher than China, ranked the Chinese mainland 64th out of 137 countries and regions this year, 30 places higher compared with 2020.

The surveys, with different questionnaires and ranking methods, all imply that people in the Chinese mainland are generally happier, and even rank as the happiest in certain aspects, observers found.

Why are Chinese people happier than before? The Global Times reached Ipsos, as well as China-based and international sociologists and culture scholars, along with ordinary citizens, to find out the possible reasons behind the overall increase in happiness among Chinese people.

Graphic: GT Graphic: GT

Family, friends matter most

"Thanks to family and friends, Chinese people are the happiest people in the world," declared a South China Morning Post article on March 21 according to conclusions made by the Ipsos survey report, saying that "relationships are a main source of happiness in China."

The importance of family and social ties to the happiness of Chinese people is clearly indicated in the Ipsos survey, which showed that Chinese respondents are more satisfied with "children," "relationship with a partner or spouse" and "friends" compared to other aspects. While some Western respondents are more satisfied with elements related to their personal circumstances and feelings, such as "access to or being in touch with nature" and "level of education."

Traditional Chinese societal values are manifested in the results, as Chinese people have a strong drive toward family harmony, as the old Chinese saying goes, "harmony at home brings prosperity," said Zhang Yiwu, a literature professor at Peking University.

Chinese people are more inclined to feel happiness in kinship and social relationships, Zhang said. "Even if one is not wealthy, he or she can gain a lot of happiness from having a happy and warm family, as well as many friends as a source of support," he told the Global Times.

Psychologist Zhang Jiehai agreed. "Chinese society is a society of interpersonal relationships, and good interpersonal relationships have a great impact on the happiness of Chinese people," said Zhang Jiehai.

Ipsos surveyed 32 countries and regions that represent over 80 percent of the world's GDP, said Nicolas Boyon, Senior Vice President of Ipsos Public Affairs in the US, in an email response to the Global Times.

Boyon said that the list of life aspects mentioned in the survey questionnaire was carefully designed, so each of them is relevant to all people in every country and region, and can be understood similarly. "Our main goal is consistency both across cultures and over time," he wrote.

Satisfied with China's economic, social, political situation

The economic, social, and political situations in a country or region also largely affect the happiness of the people there.

Compared to most non-Chinese respondents who expressed low satisfaction with their "country's economic situation" and "country's social and political situation," which led to overall average satisfaction rates in both aspects at a mere 40 percent, Chinese respondents expressed greater satisfaction in China's economic, social, and political situations.

Some 78 percent and 83 percent of Chinese respondents said they are satisfied with the "country's economic situation" and "country's social and political situation" respectively, ranking third and first among all countries and regions, the survey showed.

Zhang Jiehai said that Chinese society is stable, and its senses of fairness and justice keep increasing.

He mentioned the enhancement of the quality of life for Chinese citizens as a result of the increased happiness in the stable Chinese society.

"Foreign studies have shown the close relationship between 'not pocketing the money one has picked up' and citizens' happiness," he said. "In an experiment carried out on streets of different countries, Denmark had the highest percentage of people who return money found, and they are usually ranked as one of the happiest citizenries in the UN's happiness indices."

Similarly, China has probably the lowest percentage of express deliveries being stolen, which is also highly related to the strong sense of happiness of the people there, Zhang Jiehai exampled. "Unsupervised express packages and food deliveries placed at entryways and hospital inpatient departments are a common sight in China," he added. "Incidents of deliveries being stolen are rare as the quality of life of Chinese citizens has improved."

Recalling his days at Peking University in 2022 as a Korean scholar, Kwon Ki-sik, head of the Korea-China City Friendship Association, believes that four main factors contribute to the high level of happiness of Chinese people.

First, Chinese people highly trust the country's political system. Kwon said that Chinese people's unwavering support for the Communist Party of China (CPC) and its leaders are a source of stability in China, in sharp contrast to certain Western countries where political instability has led to general discontent.

The second is safety. Big Chinese cities including Beijing and Shanghai are among the few in the world in which one can walk freely at night thanks to good public security, whereas some security problems seen in several big US cities keep many people from venturing outside after dark, said Kwon.

Third, Chinese people are incredibly proud of the country's development and prosperity, as China has achieved remarkable economic growth over the decades of reform and opening-up. Kwon believes this sense of pride is greatly linked to the happiness of Chinese people.

Fourth, Chinese people are satisfied with the government's efforts in building a moderately prosperous society and in achieving common prosperity. "The mutual trust between the CPC and its people is the root of happiness for Chinese people," Kwon noted.

The three recent Ipsos happiness surveys conducted in August 2020, December 2021, and January 2023, revealed that 93 percent, 83 percent, and 91 percent of Chinese respondents were happy, respectively, ranking first, third, and first among all polled countries and regions.

The pandemic was a source of worry for the world. Nonetheless, compared to some Western countries' approach of "lying flat," which caused a lot of deaths, "China's COVID prevention measures protected the lives of the overwhelming majority of people," Zhang Yiwu told the Global Times. "On the whole, we got through the pandemic smoothly."

Common expectations

In the 2023 World Happiness Report released by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Finland was ranked as the happiest country in the world. The Chinese mainland was ranked at the 64th, higher than 2022 when it was ranked 72nd, and in 2021 at 84th.

Referring to the different ranking results between the report and the Ipsos survey, Boyon said that the two differ in several ways and are also complimentary. The UN Happiness Index, as reported in the World Happiness Report 2023, is based on data from a survey in which respondents were asked to rate how they feel about their life ranging in responses from "the best possible life" to "the worst possible life." It is described as a "subjective well-being score," Boyon said.

"Ipsos' survey asks a different question: 'All things considered, would you say that you are very happy, rather happy, not very happy, or not happy at all?' The self-reported level of 'happiness' from our survey can be seen as a reflection of people's mood," he added.

Also, Boyon said that Ipsos' survey is collected during the same two-week period in every country, which makes its data more current, and more sensitive to seasonality and current events.

Moreover, as the Ipsos survey is conducted online, its samples can be considered representative of their general adult population under the age of 75, Boyon explained. "But in most 'middle-income countries' or 'emerging markets,' including China, online samples tend to be more urban, more educated, more affluent than the general population," he told the Global Times.

The World Happiness Report team said on its website that it uses observed data on six variables including GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption.

These variables are more susceptible to income inequality, said Zhang Jiehai. "Countries and regions with more developed economies, smaller income gaps, and a relatively high sense of fairness usually score higher," he explained. "That's why Nordic countries have been at the top of the UN's happiness rankings for long."

Happiness surveys with distinct indicators have different results, but generally, people from all over the world share some common expectations, like narrowing the income gap, improving fairness and justice, and elimination of corruption, Zhang jiehai noted.

To further enhance Chinese people's sense of happiness, experts suggest authorities work harder in improving social welfare systems, especially in those in the fields of healthcare and rural elderly care services.

"China has made rapid progress in social welfare improvement. Nonetheless, as a developing country with a large population, it's difficult to compare China's per capita social welfare standard with that of Nordic countries," said Zhang Yiwu. "It varies from country to country in terms of their strengths and challenges."

UK's falling ranking

"China is the happiest place on earth as the UK falls in rankings," said an article published on the Northamptonshire Telegraph website on March 24. The Ipsos survey found that 70 percent of British people considered themselves happy, a 13 percent drop from 2022.

Fleur, a retired teacher living in London, told the Global Times reporter that she does feel less happy than about a decade ago mainly because of the economic pressure she experiences. Fleur said her pension is falling in value under high inflation in the UK, and she and people around her feel uneasy about several persisting problems in British society, including the widening wealth gap, the rising crime rate, and the falling employment rates.

In the US, just 12 percent of respondents described themselves as "very happy," "the lowest share on record since NORC began asking the question…in 1972," according to a US domestic survey released by The Wall Street Journal and the social research organization NORC at the University of Chicago on March 24. Some 30 percent said they are "not too happy."

Financial circumstances are main happiness contributors for some Westerners, analyzed Zhang Jiehai. In a few European countries, for instance, people are faced with slow income growth and fast-rising living costs. "Their living standards are seeing a downward trend when compared with their predecessors. A blue-collar couple can hardly maintain their standard of living after retiring if their children are also blue collars," Zhang Jiehai said. 

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GDP by countries 1820-2022


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Thursday 3 February 2022

South Korea in the Year of the Tiger

 Chinese New Year wishes: Many South Korean nationalists contend that the peninsula resembles a tiger; hence this Year of the Tiger, it should exude the same strength and ferocity.

ACCORDING to the Chinese zodiac, the year 2022 is the Year of the Tiger. Although the younger generation in Korea is perhaps no longer interested in the zodiac, it still counts for the older generation. The zodiac says that those who are born in the Year of the Tiger are bold, courageous, and confident. At the same time, however, they tend to be impetuous, overindulgent, and unpredictable.

The shape of the Korean Peninsula has invited some interesting debates. Some people argue that the shape of the Peninsula resembles a rabbit. Others maintain that it looks like a shrimp. Yet there are also those who contend that the Peninsula resembles a tiger.
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The rabbit is the image of a weak, docile, and peace-loving animal, and the shrimp may have the connotation of being a victim in the midst of a fight between whales. On the contrary, the tiger is the image of strength and ferocity.
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Those who lived through Korea’s turbulent history over the last several decades support the rabbit or shrimp theory, whereas nationalists prefer the tiger image.
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Lee O Young, South Korea’s former Culture Minister, presents an interesting theory. He contends that the Korean Peninsula resembles a trophy that strong nations want to possess. Since competitors constantly arise to challenge each other to win the trophy, Korea has always been vulnerable to the rise of a new power in the international community.
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In the Year of the Tiger, South Korea should be “bold, courageous and confident,” when dealing with neighbouring countries when and
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if they act like bullies or are hostile and threatening. At the same time, Korea should not be “impetuous, overindulgent or unpredictable,” in her relationship with friendly nations.
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If we stand up to bullying nations, they would not dare to offend us anymore. When we are consistent and predictable to friendly nations, they will remain our faithful allies. If we act otherwise, we will be hopelessly bullied by hostile countries and lose respect and trust from friendly nations.
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Some time ago, a group of Korean political science professors gathered at a roundtable meeting to discuss the future of Korea in the ever-intensifying conflicts between China and the United States. They unanimously insisted that South Korea should not choose one of the two. Disappointingly, however, they did not come up with any specific tactic of managing this dilemma.
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Perhaps, not choosing a side is what “politics” is all about. Nevertheless, we expected some concrete guidelines from them in dealing with the compelling issues that will directly affect the future of Korea.
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In the Year of the Tiger, the final hours for Korea to choose between the two options will come. We can no longer defer our decision and continue an opportunistic posture between the two. This Tiger year, we sincerely hope that our politicians choose wisely, so our country will continue to prosper and thrive. If our representatives make a wrong decision by any chance, our country would suffer the consequences and the future of our country would be grim. Besides, South Korea would lose respect in the international community. That would be equally fatal for the future of Korea.
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The problem is that it is extremely difficult to find a solution to the dilemma we are now facing. Perhaps one way to get out of the quagmire is that we build a nation that is strong and has precious things the two conflicting countries urgently and desperately need.
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Among others, semiconductors and electric batteries come to mind. Then, the two rival countries would treat us with greater respect. Currently, Samsung and Taiwan’s TSMC manufacture 70% of semiconductors of the world. Since Samsung’s main strength lies in semiconductor memory, which occupies a relatively small portion of the market, it should expand its manufacturing capacity to other semiconductors.
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In the Year of the Tiger, the Korean people will have to make another choice. In March’s presidential election, Koreans will choose the person who will run the country for the next five years. It will be a choice not only between conservatism and progressivism, but also between capitalism and socialism, or liberal democracy and a people’s democracy. Our choice on that fateful Election Day will decide the destiny of Korea.
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Indeed, Korea will be at the crossroads in the Year of the Tiger. If we choose the wrong road, we will be lost and doomed. If we choose the right road, however, our future will be bright and prosperous. Therefore, it is imperative for us to choose the right leader who can steer our country in the right direction in a perfect storm.
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In the Year of the Tiger, we wish South Korea to become the tiger that poet William Blake described in his celebrated poem, “The Tyger.” It begins with, “Tyger Tyger, burning bright,/ In the forests of the night;/ What immortal hand or eye,/ Could frame thy fearful symmetry?”
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We hope South Korea will emerge as a healthy, strong tiger roaring loudly and proudly on the peak of a mountain, not as a wounded, depressed tiger hiding in the jungle. – The Korea Herald/Asia News Network

By KIM SEONG-KON Kim Seong-kon is a professor emeritus of English at Seoul National University and a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College.
` 

 

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Wednesday 1 December 2021

The new James Bond film is nostalgia of a declining empire






British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth Photo:VCG

British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth Photo:VCG


I watched the new James Bond movie last night. It is well made. But the more I watched, the more it looked like comedy. In one scene when they are about to destroy a chemical manufacturing facility located on a disputed island between Russia and Japan, the MI6 official asks whether there are any Royal Navy warships nearby. It turns out there are, and then the missile is launched. Are the British sleepwalking? The Royal Navy is now relying heavily on the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier, which has been leaking frequently, to scrape a battle group up. Yet HMS Queen Elizabeth did come to show in the Asia Pacific region recently. But if it is exploited as the basis for the story, it would be too embarrassing.

The UK is a declining empire. The novel coronavirus epidemic has gravely devastated the country, killing hundreds of thousands of people. Many residents of other countries are afraid of taking the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine produced by the UK. In the Taiwan island alone, hundreds of people died after receiving the vaccine. Ironically, this James Bond movie is about preventing biological weapons.

The British are really good at this. Although the country is in decline, it is still high-spirited. In the newly filmed 007 movie, the empire seems to be in full swing. But I believe that the Western blockbusters in which characters attempt to save the human race will gradually become ridiculous over time, as these blockbusters will lose the public's psychological foundation due to the relative decline in strengths of Western countries and the continuous disintegration of self-confidence.

In the movie, the disputed islands between Russia and Japan, which should be controlled by Russia, were bombed. If the UK dared to do this in reality, Russia wouldn't waste a minute to respond with hardline measures. A few months ago after Moscow said a patrol ship fired warning shots against British vessels, London declined that any warning shot had been fired.

But I have to praise James Bond movies. They never mess with China. Instead, they are friendly to China. Even when the ties between China and Britain is getting worse, some villains in the movie still "speak Russian." This is because the Chinese film market is huge. In a commercial promoting the James Bond movie, Daniel Craig said "Thank you" in Chinese, showing his appreciation. Chinese consumption power is the strength. 

The author is editor-in-chief of the Global Times.

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Saturday 3 July 2021

Decoding an awakening giant, the China's secret recipe of success for an economic miracle

World main countries 2021 Q1 GDP Growth Infographic: Wu Tiantong/GT

Xi Jinping: Chinese people will never allow foreign bullying, oppressing or subjugating

https://youtu.be/oS5QqS9C_xw

https://youtu.be/J1s1evS3xJc

 

 

 

As China gears up to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on July 1, one of the greatest achievements of the CPC to be highlighted is what has been widely described as an economic miracle. From a backward agrarian economy in the early days of the People's Republic of China (PRC) to an economic and technological powerhouse today, China's economic success story under the CPC's leadership has arguably become the global story of the century and the envy of the world.

The secret codes behind such miraculous achievements have also become a hotly debated topic around the world. This article will decode those codes.

Born into a poor rural family with per capita disposal income of less than 50 yuan ($7.80), the PRC, now in its 70s, has seen the income reading top 32,000 yuan as of 2020. Behind the 640-plus fold surge is the country's rapid ascent to a global behemoth in almost every aspect in an unparalleled timeframe and path.

What are the CPC's secret codes to economic success?

To answer that, the Global Times conducted an extensive examination of the CPC's economic policymaking at several critical junctions and interviewed domestic and foreign experts. Four key themes stand out.

World main countries 2021 Q1 GDP Growth Infographic: Wu Tiantong/GT

World main countries 2021 Q1 GDP Growth Infographic: Wu Tiantong/GT


Bold planning, effective execution

"The five-year planning is the major driving factor that boosted the Chinese economy to the No. 2 in the world. This system is effective and reliable in focusing on and predicting how the economy performs and which necessary adjustments are required to finetune it along the way," David Monyae, director of the Centre for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg, told the Global Times.

Since its beginning in the 1950s, there have been 14 five-year plans (FYP) - each marks a significant shift in China's economic policies and advances in social and economic development.

The first FYP, which started in 1953, envisioned the industrialization of China, starting the 60-plus year journey of creating an economic constellation that's being renovated every five years.

"China has led a different path than the West's laissez-faire capitalism or its so-called marketization. China maintains more compelling institutional prowess than the West," said Cong Yi, dean of School of Marxism under Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, citing the Party's strong ability to make strategic development plans that integrate short-term plans into medium and long-term ones.

After initially drawing on the Soviet Union's five-year planning experience, the CPC soon realized the limitations of the Soviet model and some of its shortcomings and mistakes, and then decided to independently explore a socialist construction road suited to China's national conditions, which, coupled with laser focus and effective execution, led to one milestone after another.

The 13th CPC National Congress in 1987 made a proposition of a three-step development strategy that envisaged doubling the gross national product (GNP) between 1981 and 1990, doubling its GNP again by the end of the 20th century and per capita GNP reaching moderately developed country levels by the middle of this century.

Buoyed by unprecedented reformist drives since the country's grand reform and opening-up in 1978, the second-step target was hit at the conclusion of the Eighth FYP (1991-95), five years ahead of schedule.

In yet another milestone, the Third Plenary Session of the 14th CPC Central Committee in November 1993 passed the decision on certain issues in establishing a socialist market economic system. With the guidance of the Ninth FYP (1996-2000), the country made good the transition from a planned economy to a socialist market economy in 2000, a prelude to its accession to the WTO in December 2001.

In the latest proof of the effectiveness of the FYP, just as planned, the alternation of the 13th FYP ended 2020 and the newest FYP starting this year is on course to deliver a victory for its first centenary goal of building a moderately well-off society on the CPC's 100th anniversary.

"The main feature of the five-year plans is the top-level design, which is holistic, macroscopic, forward looking, anticipatory and binding," Zhao Xuejun, director of the Modern Economic History of China Research Center under Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) Institute of Economics, told the Global Times.

Today, China's FYPs have become a closely watched policy document around the world as it provides a valuable window into China's economic policies and development goals.

This year, global attention was focused on the 14th FYP ending 2025, which is set to pave the way for the second centenary goal to be attained - building a modern socialist power by 2049 when the PRC turns 100.

File photo:VCG

File photo:VCG

 

Seeking truth from facts

However, even as China's economy advanced in an overall steady pace as planned, there were no shortages of difficulties and mistakes over the past several decades - from some early decisions and policies that were against market rules to the "decade of the catastrophe," to the blind pursuit of extensive and high-speed growth over a certain period of time.

In overcoming those challenges and mistakes, the CPC showed its ability to "seek truth from facts" - a phrase that epitomizes the Party's flexibility and ability to objectively pinpoint the problems, experts said.

That ability was highlighted in the Party's response to crises during the Great Leap Forward era, which coincided with the Three Years of Natural Disasters (1959-61) and the breakdown of Sino-Soviet Union relations.

During the period, exaggeration about production prevailed across China, being called "launching satellites," and from wheat, rice and steel, places and reports started to boast of false high productions. The economic and social campaign that aimed for a rapid industrialization to steer the-then poor economy into a modern communist society appeared to have wrong-footed the economy.

Instead of turning a blind eye to the truth, the CPC Central Committee urged maximum efforts to correct all deviations in an urgent instruction letter in November 1960 and a Party plenum in January 1961 decided on the implementation of an economic adjustment.

As the economy ran its course of adjustment at the end of 1965 and began its third FYP, the Cultural Revolution began, putting the country in "10 years of catastrophe" until 1976.

Then came another turn - the 11th National Congress of the CPC in August 1977 declared the end of the Cultural Revolution and reiterated that the Party's fundamental task was to build the country into a socialist modern power.

"The CPC has a strong mechanism of self-correction; internally it came from the democratic system of the Party, and essentially it is built on the Party's tenet of seeking interest for the people and re-juvenation for the nation," Zhao told the Global Times.

The perseverance with seeking truth comes across as building the economy's resilience that has dissolved various challenges and crises, such as the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, the 2008 global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, into hiccups which only result in increased economic sophistication, observers noted.

In response to the crises, the CPC was able to seek truth from facts and be flexible, as well as to be free from prejudice and ideological bias, encouraging local exploration and innovation, Zhao said.

In another striking and more recent example, the Party has managed to bid farewell to an unhealthy obsession with GDP growth that regards GDP statistics as the core or even the only indicator for assessing government performance, which stoked concerns over high GDP numbers at the expense of the environment and economic imbalance.

For instance, in August 2014, East China's Fujian Province cancelled the GDP assessment in 34 counties and cities, and implemented the evaluation method of giving priority to agriculture and ecological protection.

Aerial photo taken on Sept. 17, 2020 shows the Houhai area in Nanshan District of Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province. Photo:xinhua

Aerial photo taken on Sept. 17, 2020 shows the Houhai area in Nanshan District of Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province. Photo:xinhua

 

Reform and opening-up

Just as the CPC is very swift in correcting mistakes, it is also profoundly persistent and steadfast in carrying out scientific policies - another pillar of the CPC's economic success.

The milestone Third Plenum of the 11th CPC Central Committee in December 1978 has been widely known as a starting point for the economy's 40-plus years of reform and opening-up, ushering in a transition from a class struggle-themed Party platform to a focus on economic building.

The main resistance force came from people's fear of capitalism, thinking that opening to the outside world would alchemize New China. With keen observation on the world's development in economy and science and technology, Deng Xiaoping launched the opening-up policy, pushing aside all hesitance and skepticism.

In early 1982, the Shekou industrial zone in Shenzhen was criticized by some for planning to hire a foreign business manager. When Deng learned this, he immediately applauded the decision, saying that it's OK to hire foreigners as managers and it is no traitorous behavior.

The reform of the country's state-owned enterprises (SOE) is an evocative story of the country's undaunted approach to boosting its economy.

By 1987, 80 percent of the country's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) adopted various forms of the contracted managerial responsibility system. Some enterprises even began to undertake shareholding system reforms.

Graphic:GT

Graphic:GT

In the first quarter of 1996, the country's 68,800 SOEs, as a whole, recorded their first net loss since the founding of the PRC.

After the pain comes the result. From 1989 to 2001, though the number of SOEs dropped to 46,800 from 102,300, their total industrial added value increased to 1.47 trillion yuan from 389.5 billion yuan, surging 11.67 percent annually.

Despite tremendous success over the past several decades, difficulties and hurdles never ceased to test China's commitment to the reform and opening-up policies today.

The thorn-covered yet high-yielding road to reform and opening-up, as such, was being paved as efforts to liberate thoughts and the bold push for innovation trickled in. With an endeavor to sustain liberation on multiple fronts for there to be even deeper reforms, China finally pushed through.

In 2020, China overtook the US to become the world's top destination for new foreign direct in-vestment. In the first five months of 2021 alone, China attracted 18,497 new foreign-funded firms and 481 billion yuan in foreign capital.

Graphic:GT

Graphic:GT

 

Self-sufficiency, innovation-driven

However, increasingly opening up to the outside world does not mean China will not mitigate seri-ous risks for its national and economic security. Since the earlier days of the CPC's leadership, self-sufficiency in many core sectors such as food and technology was a major focus, which has also become a key code to the CPC's success.

In an early sign of a self-reliant approach to development, by 1964, the self-sufficiency rate of China's main machinery and equipment had reached over 90 percent. With construction of the Daqing oilfield completed and Shengli and Dagang oilfields under development, China achieved total self-sufficiency in oil by 1965.

Since then, that quest for self-sufficiency in many areas, including technological innovation, has never stopped and has helped lift China to a world-leading global technological power in many areas - from 5G to high-speed rails, and from new-energy vehicles to space exploration technologies.

Just last week, China pulled off the country's first-ever automated fast rendezvous and docking of a manned spacecraft with China's orbiting space station core cabin, after the Shenzhou-12 manned spacecraft was successfully launched on the Long March-2F Y12 carrier rocket.

China's considerable technological prowess has already unnerved the US, which has been a domi-nant player for decades.

The CPC's focus on self-sufficiency and innovation-driven strategy was particularly notable in the country's efforts to mitigate an increasingly hostile external environment marked by a relentless attempt by the US to contain China's rise.

Even before the US' crackdown campaign, the focus on self-dependence and technological innova-tion was highlighted as the CPC convened its 19th National Congress in October 2017, where a new era of China's socialism was declared. The Party's 18th National Congress also introduced an innovation-driven development strategy.

Since then, in a series of meetings and top policy documents, the CPC has constantly stepped up efforts to pursue efficiency in a wide range of areas, from semiconductors to crop seeds.

"Against the backdrop of an intensifying China-US rivalry, China may face rising risks of high-tech blocks, supply chain obstruction, or further trade disputes. What China needs to do is focus on its own business and concentrate on overcoming the difficulties in key technologies, equipment, raw materials and design software that are being held back by Western countries, and coordinate devel-opment and security," said Zhao.

As these new challenges emerge, while China is no longer the backward, war-torn country it was 7 decades ago, challenges and risks, both domestic and foreign, remain. With the CPC's firm leader-ship and its proven successful economic policymaking, China is better positioned than ever to reach its bold development goal of becoming a modern socialist power in the coming decades, analysts said.

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China's Success Cannot Be Copied and Pasted, 

defeated Delta variant !

 

Wednesday 2 June 2021

How to overcome stress and anxiety

THESE are difficult times and thus, stress levels are on the rise

If you’re suffering from tension, headaches, feelings of depression and other effects of too much strain, think about how you can help yourself.

Firstly, everyone is different so the things that you find stressful may not be stressful to others. For example, approaching strangers and asking them to sign up for something may be a horror for you, but it gets a natural salesperson smiling with anticipation.

Bottom line: stress is intensely personal. Figure out what factors hit you hardest. Now you know where to start.

Secondly, stress is something imposed on you that you just have to accept.

A lot of the time, you can anticipate and plan to manage the events that make you uptight.

For example, if you know that Tuesdays are stressful because it’s the day when you have a one-on-one with a tough client, make sure that you schedule something afterwards that will help you blow off steam – like a run or a coffee with a cherished friend.

Thirdly, just like stress is highly individual, so are methods for managing it.

Classic methods include physical exercise, breathing, meditation and eating properly.

However, if you’re doing these and they are not working for you, explore ways that work for you. Maybe you distress from painting, cooking or composting haiku.

If you need ideas, just think back to the last time you were feeling serene.

Finally, it’s not a sign of strength to ignore stress.

Studies show that long-term stress will affect your health and can lead to problems such as insomnia, upset stomachs, rashes and high blood pressure.

So don’t ignore those little niggles. Instead listen to your body and take early action. 

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Thursday 6 August 2020

Understanding the attraction between men and women


Dr Goh Pei Hwa  from Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Science


HOW many times have we all, at some point in our lives, misinterpreted signs?


Movies like He’s Just Not That into You, which is based on Greg Behrendt’s and Liz Tuccillo’s 2004 self-help book of the same name, tells people that if a man in whom you are interested in is not making an effort to pursue you, he is “just not that into you.”

Research has long indicated that it is mostly men, who tend to misperceive friendliness as sexual interest. They overestimate the sexual interest of potential mates. Even when two people have clearly defined their relationship as platonic, more often, it is the men, who are attracted to their opposite-sex friends.

According to Dr Goh Pei Hwa from the Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, this is not always the case.

While the majority of existing findings show the abovementioned pattern of men overperceiving sexual interest, relationship researchers have demonstrated that among heterosexual couples in committed relationships, men were more likely to underperceive sexual interest from their partners.

Men from certain cultures were also less likely to overperceive sexual interest than others.

In other words, the “male over perception bias” appears to be less universal than previously assumed.

In her recent work, Dr Goh revisited the question of gender differences in sexual perception accuracy using a face-to-face, laboratory-based interaction paradigm on a sample of university students in Malaysia.

Participants consisted of 62 previously unacquainted heterosexual dyads aged 20 years on average. Each participant was randomly paired with another participant of the other sex, and each dyad engaged in a semi-structured conversation task for five minutes.

After the interaction task, participants completed measures capturing their degree of sexual interest in their interaction partner and an estimation of their partner’s sexual interest in them.

Results revealed that people’s perception of their partner’s sexual interest did not match their partner’s actual sexual interest. This indicates that people generally lacked accuracy in their perception of sexual interest.

In fact, people’s perception of sexual interest was highly in line with their own sexual interest in their interaction partner.

More importantly, no gender differences were found. This means that both men and women were equally inaccurate and equally likely to project their own sexual interest onto their estimations of their partner’s sexual interest.

“In essence, people are bad at interpreting sexual interest from strangers. Based on the research, Malaysian men do not overperceive sexual interest as past studies have suggested. Women, on the other hand, tend to underperceive sexual interest, supporting past studies,” says Goh.

The current study advances our understanding that people are generally underperceiving sexual interest in initial interactions, regardless of gender.

That is, people are either not communicating their sexual interest effectively or missing all the sexual interest cues being expressed by someone else.

Here, it translates into a lot of potentially missed opportunities. This is highly applicable to first meetings between potential partners, which begs the question: does technology further impede our ability to gauge the sexual interest of others accurately?

With dating apps, we typically already know that we are chatting with someone who finds us attractive or appealing to a certain extent.

Thus, there is no need to try to decipher whether or not someone is into us based on the interaction.

Goh concludes: “If you like someone or have some interest in a person, express it more overtly. This will invite the other person to respond according to his or her own interest in you.

“Let the other person decide if he or she is interested, not you and your potentially (or most likely) wrong perceptions”.

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Saturday 18 May 2019

How to make living more affordable?


IN my previous article I asked the question, Do you earn enough to sustain your lifestyle?

The feedback received was consistent. People told me that they worry about the situation, some even wrote in to share their concern.

A reader by the name of Yap wrote me an email about his observation after reading my article.

“I always doubt how a family with a median household income can survive in KL. Based on my calculation, there is no way a family with two children can survive in KL with RM6,275 without accumulating bad debt or spending 4.5 hours to travel on the road. Housing is one of the factors, but not the only one,” he wrote in his email.

Belanjawanku, an expenditure guide launched by the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) in early March states that a married couple with two children spend about RM6,620 per month on food, transport, housing, childcare, utilities, healthcare, etc.

However, the median household income for Malaysians in 2016 was RM5,228. While the median income of M40 group (Middle 40%) was RM6,275, which means five out of 10 households in this category received RM6,275 per month or less. This is far below the RM6,620 required for a family with two children to stay in the Klang Valley.

Another alarming fact is... Belanjawanku compiles only core living expenses without including long-term financial planning tools such as education funds or investments. The actual budget constraint can be more severe if we take them into account.

The living cost in major cities is inevitably higher than in small towns or suburb areas.

As such, when we discuss housing affordability in the cities such as Kuala Lumpur and the Klang Valley, we shouldn’t impose the same benchmark of RM300,000 as everything else is more expensive in the city. Affordable housing should benchmark against the cost of living of the area.

Based on the research for Belanjawanku, even if housing was provided for free, a household of four would still need RM5,750 to sustain their lifestyle.

The transportation cost alone is RM1,040 for a family, higher than the RM870 allocated for housing.

Therefore, if a family is looking to lower their cost of living, moving to suburb areas would allow them to have a more affordable budget.

According to a news report which quoted information from brickz.my, the housing prices in KL are five times higher than in Seremban, with median housing price of RM1mil (RM940 psf) in the KL city centre, versus RM200,000 (RM210 psf) in Seremban.

Suburbs which are nearer to KL such as Klang and Shah Alam also offer attractive housing prices with a median price of RM340,000.

For families who stay in the city centre and plan to reduce their cost of living, they can consider moving to suburbs to enjoy a better quality of life, and leverage on the improved public transportation which offer hassle-free travelling from suburbs to city centre.

Although high living cost is a concern for many Malaysians, KL is ironically found to be the cheapest city to live out of the 11 major cities in Asia, according to the 2018 Wealth Report Asia.

We are “cheaper” or ranked lower than our neighbouring cities, including Bangkok, Manila and Jakarta. KL, Manila, and Jakarta are also the most price competitive cities when it comes to the residential properties segment.

Why are we still facing the challenge of high living costs despite being the “cheapest” city in the region? The underlying factor is because of the low household income earned by most Malaysians, as the previous government failed to transit us to a higher income nation.

In his email, Yap mentioned that “I always imagine what Malaysia can be if there were no leakages. Hundreds of billions could be spent to stimulate various industries. Our GDP per capita could be close to if not similar to Singapore’s”.

That is the vision and sentiment shared by a majority of Malaysians. With the new government that promises to be more transparent and efficient, we hope that one day, we can afford to live comfortably in any city we wish to, with a higher household income.

Datuk Alan Tong has over 50 years of experience in property development. He was the World President of FIABCI International for 2005/2006 and awarded the Property Man of the Year 2010 at FIABCI Malaysia Property Award. He is also the group chairman of Bukit Kiara Properties. For feedback, please email bkp@bukitkiara.com

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