Political economies of China and Russia

Every country’s current status is determined by its history both politically and economically. Likewise, China and Russia’s current status are also determined by their history of their association with other countries regarding political and economic integrations. It is crystal clear that these countries are currently among the economic giants of Asia and the rest of the world. However, the two countries have achieved these objectives in different ways and techniques. This paper attempts to analyze the different methods and policies put in place by the Russian and Chinese administration systems to attain their current status.

The nature of governance, level of economic integration and the mutual views regarding other countries political and economic stands are some of the grounds of comparison between the two countries. However, there other grounds that these countries’ political and economic systems can be compared to give a better understanding concerning their differences and similarities.

Russia and China use different systems of administration in almost every sector both in its efforts to develop or administration. Furthermore, this applies to both the economic and political forms of administration. The Chinese government was famously known for its efforts to ensure that it was among the first countries to achieve civilization in 19^th and 20 Century. Unfortunately, this country suffered from various attacks, famine and increased foreign occupation hence demoralizing the country efforts to liberate themselves from these economic and political setbacks. Things got worse when the communists under the leader by then, Mao Zedong came up with strategies that ensured that the Chinese people lives were made strict in an attempts to retain Chinese sovereignty. The nature of the governance by then was the autocratic socialist. This form of governance seemed to worsen the state of the country rather than improving its standards. Luckily, post-Mao system’s leaders were more visionary and struggled to stabilize China and more so accelerate its civilization. For instance, Deng Xiaoping was determined to ensure that there was the creation of a market-oriented government. This system was the only way out from the problems that China had gotten into during other regimes. Together with other successors’ Deng ensured that the country was a market-oriented in a bid to encourage an accelerating economic growth and development. All these changes were important to the Chinese government; in fact, this was a turning point for this government. There were many notable changes after the Mao’s era. For instance, the output of the country from the year 2000 has continued to grow in quadrupled times. The standards of living have continuously risen and so has the personal choices of the citizens. Currently, the country has not reduced its efforts towards achieving its economic and political objectives. China is currently cultivating the spirit of global outreach and an effort to increase the magnitude of its participation in the internationally recognized organizations.

In Russia, it has also been tough and full of challenges from other regimes. Communism has been the mode of governance for a long period. However, the government has continued to revolve by modernizing the nature of communism. The nature of the governance completely changed in the year 1991 when the new system of a centralized semi-authoritarian system was introduced. This system is used till to date. The government ensures that the system is legally changed by following the system of national referendums and national elections. All these protocols are followed to promote the quality of legitimacy of policies and separation of personal interests of the policymakers. The highest level of revolution and economic growth and development took place during the Putin’s era. The country is continuing to grow and develop its systems both in political and economic sectors. In politics, the ruling government has succeeded in disabling the rebel movement, Chechen. However, the northern region is still suffering from the violence by the rebel groups.

Economic overview

To date, China is still using its market-oriented system to propel its levels of production and competition with the other economic giants, in fact, through this system, China has become the world’s largest finished goods exporter. Post-Mao regimes have ensured that agriculture has been faced out and instead replaced with a liberalized pricing of commodities, fiscal, environmental improvement through decentralization and an increment of the state-owned firms and continued growth of the urban centers. China has also ensured that the banking system has been liberalized by encouraging the introduction of modern systems and introduction of new foreign trade and investment forums for the countries investors. Surprising, this changes and reforms have been brought up in a gradual fashion to avoid any chances of self-contradicting development changes. Before the current regime, the introduction of state-owned enterprises was largely opposed. However, the current regime has vowed to increase the number of state-owned enterprises to ensure that there is an increase in economic security and healthy competition between the private and public sector. The existence of public owned industries in the same industry with the privately owned firms ensures that the amount of competition is increased together with the quality of the same population.

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The monetary system in China has also been a motivating factor for the economic growth. China has continuously kept its currency closely linked to that of the United States. Despite the appreciation of the exchange (dollar) in the domestic market (China), china’s financial system has continued to grow through pegging to the dollar. This scenario has taken place since the financial crisis period to the end. All these forms of restructuring and changes in the economy have greatly contributed to its current economic status. Furthermore, the growth has risen as fast as ten folds regarding the gross domestic product. The world ranking after measuring the level of economic growth using the purchasing power parity systems showed that China ranks second-largest after the United States. This results released in 2013 showed that China had surpassed other countries such as Japan and Russia. China is also ranked second in the U.S regarding value of its produce. This includes both the agricultural and industrial products in the global market.

Despite all these economic successes, China is still facing various challenges hindering its economic growth levels and attainment of the economic objectives. For instance, the per capita income is still low compared to other countries. Various studies have shown that this disparity between economic growth and development have come up as a result of the rapid population growth. Moreover, these studies show that the high population has led to an reduction of savings and an increasing rate of consumption at the expense of the domestic savings. China is also struggling with the facilitation of the higher-wage employment for the aspiring middle-class citizens and the rural-urban migrants. Lastly, the increasing number of graduates is a challenge to China. Although China is known for its deadly rules on corruption, corruption, and related crimes is also a challenge to the Chinese government.

On the other hand, since the end of the Soviet Union, Russian economy has undergone various changes. These changes include shifting from the global isolated economic system to a more centralized system which is similar to the market-oriented adopted by China. However, Russia is focusing more on global market expansion. Unlike the Chinese government that encouraged the introduction of public industries, Russia was determined to privatize most of its firms. However, energy and defense were considered as sensitive industries to privatize, and as a result, it has considered the firms as its sole responsibility to avoid any inconveniences and lack of efficiency. The private sector has also continued to complain about the continued interruption by the state. Though the country is the largest producer of oil and natural gas, it has also majored in other areas such as the exportation of steel and aluminum products, and most especially primary aluminum. The country’s production is geared towards consumption in the domestic market. Therefore, the level of export is affected by the fluctuating prices since there are no stringent measures to regulate the external market. The export market forms the larger volume of the countries source of income. This makes the countries income more vulnerable. This danger is intensified by the existence of different prices in the market especially during the boom and recession periods. As stated earlier, China came up with strict measures to avoid the major downfall of the economy during the financial crisis period. Russia was largely hit by the crisis when oil plummeted the Russian banks. The impact of the crisis has continued to rise since the oil prices have continuously dropped. Moreover, the foreign direct investment has increased. This means that more income is flown out of a country to mother country of the companies. The general economic feeling is that the growth will continue to drop. This assumption is evidenced by the forecasters who show that the drop is approximately 2.5% percent. These results are an indication that there is a drop from the previous approximations of the 4% percent growth in the year 2010. This drop is expected to drop after the Russian intervention in Ukraine. Major impacts on economic development and growth are expected to drop, and the worst scenario is that they may drop down to zero levels of gross domestic product.

Despite the existence of significant differences between the Beijing and Moscow, there still exists some similarities. For instance, both countries were major communists. However, Russia abandoned the strict communism standards whereas China still holds up to them till today. They both have a similar and singular mission, but the methods and ideologies towards this mission differ from one country to the other. The most evident difference is that China is currently entrusting all its powers to one political party whereas, in Russia, power is bestowed upon one person.

Both China and Russia consider the democratic system of governance in the West as inefficient and needless forms of governments. These two countries argue that it is difficult for autocracy to be seen to work for their own needs and gains. However, they are always seen to be working for the benefit of the general public. However, Russia and China has other branches such as the parliament and other political parties that allow the Russian and Chinese governments to camouflage and fit in international stages.

Both Chinese and Russian members of the economic middle class have risen over the last decade. These groups which have continued to gain more status quo is significantly gaining fame and more so asking their governments to be more accountability. Consequently, the Russian and Chinese governments have learned to take care of these demands through the traditional communism systems and political purges. As a result, the government is countering corruption and cutting down the level of official aptitude.

Both the Russia and Chinese governments have state-owned firms in the most sensitive sectors such as the oil and telecommunication. Furthermore, the governments have learned to retain power in the industries by ensuring that they have a say regarding strategic and lucrative markets.

Lastly, Russia and China have always had political suspicions against the United States. The two countries have detested the promotion of democracy and more so the change regimes of the two countries. Furthermore, the two countries have disliked the way the United States peddles on what they call their political spheres. These spheres are central Asian countries, Asian Pacific and the Eastern Europe. The most recent accusation is the foreign policy issue that is targeting on improving the relationship between the United States and the ‘Russian and Chinese’ spheres. Surprisingly, the feeling of suspicion between the two groups is mutual. The United Nations also views the Russians and Chinese as hostile towards its interests. The existence of common interests between China and Russia has pulled the two countries together to the extent of forming a span that extends towards the Eurasia. Furthermore, Russia is determined to export oil and gas. Therefore, China needs these products to run their economy and Russia has then both.