China and the USA: Economic and Social Comparisons

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThis paper considers the economic opportunities of the United States and China for cooperation to achieve mutual competitive advantages. It compares these two major world economies and the challenges which face them. In some ways they are strikingly similar. In others they have complimentary differences. The United States has major advantages in a well-established democratic government with a well-developed system of property rights, law, and relatively honest government. China has the advantages of a rapidly expanding economy and market. In many respects they complement each other.Keywords: China, USA, Competition, CooperationINTRODUCTIONAt a time when there is increasing concern of economic conflict between China and the United States, it is important to recognize the opportunities for cooperation to the benefit of both countries. China and the United States have many similarities such as being similar in geographic area and in diversity of climate. They also have similar exposure to the effects of climate change. China faces extreme challenges in dealing with air and water pollution. These are comparable to those of the United States in the first half of the last century. The United States has funding problems for Social Security and Medicare with a decreasing ratio of workers to older people. If anything, China faces more severe difficulties in supporting an aging population. Each may learn from the experience of the other and there are opportunities for cooperation in research and to approach our common problems.The differences between the two economies also offer opportunities. China has a highly homogenous population with more than 90% being Han Chinese. The United States has a very diverse population with many immigrants and children of immigrants from nations around the world. Each of these presents special opportunities and challenges. There are pervasive economies of scale as the market expands. A richer China expands the market for many things. This makes it profitable to produce new and innovative goods and services which would not be profitable with a smaller market. At the same time China's hard working and increasing number of highly educated professional workers promise to contribute to developing new and innovative products and services to fill the wants of the expanding market. The result is an explosion of opportunities for cooperation rather than conflict between the United States and China.SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCIESThere are some amazing similarities between China and the United States as well as some major differences. The two countries are of about the same geographic size, the third and fourth largest nations in the world (China, United States). Different sources give different rankings for the two nations. Which is larger depends on how you count the surface area. If you include water like lakes and streams the United States in larger. If you count only land area, China is larger. Both countries have huge amounts of natural resources and a great variety of natural resources. Although these amounts may not be large enough for projected need and create an import market. (Cao, n.d., p. 20) China, like the United States, has large deposits of iron and coal. China has more hydroelectric potential than the US and China now exceeds Canada as the world's largest producer of hydroelectric power. China is developing more of that potential with the Three Gorges Project, which will be the largest hydroelectric project in the world. Currently, China is building one large (1000MW) power plant per week (Lin, 2007, p. 4402). Companies from Japan and the US have won bids to build 35 reactors in China and another five are planned for the US (Tokyo Reports).Both the US and China have varied and violent weather although China is exempt from tornados. Both are subject to earthquakes. This allows the countries to compare preparedness measures and hope to find ways predict when and where earthquakes will occur (Malone, 2008). …

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