“China is Very Big”

I was, back in 1986, in a very small way personally part of the initial opening up of the People’s Republic to the West economically. I was based in Hong Kong and my multinational employer had decided that “China is very Big” and that we should invest substantially. I was part of the team.

Frequent trips to Beijing and elsewhere convinced us that these were people we could do business with. Tiannamen Square in 1989 was a setback but within months links were reestablished. China clambered swiftly up the learning curve and the West salivated. It was both a massive market for our exporters and a huge labour force for companies and brands seeking to manufacture more cheaply offshore. Think “Apple” – and countless others.

Ideology played little part in China’s commercial success and exceptional growth. Politically it did not modify its totalitarian system. It was under no meaningful pressure to do so. In effect economically it became a mixed economy with State and Private Enterprise working together. The State was hugely important for major infrastructure projects especially transport. Airports and high speed railway lines were constructed on an astonishing scale – essential in such a vast country.

There has been a pragmatic focus driving China’s success. The preposterous days of the Cultural Revolution are a distant memory. As are the bicycles and Mao suits. The old villain’s portrait still hangs In Tiannamen Square. Perhaps as a warning not to revert to the horrors off the past!