Thesis: China’s Communism survived after the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, China has maintained a rather slow transition to a market economy and this started in 1979. After this period, China’s opening up and membership of the WTO increased significantly over the years. This has caused many modifications of the economy and the economic development has altered the social structures and social systems of the country. What role did the changes in the political economy after WTO membership play in the changes in social classes in China?
The research question: Central Question for Academic Debate: What is the impact of China’s WTO membership on its political economy and the main changes in the social classes of China that came with it?
- What are the changes that have occurred due to economic development and related areas including education and the growth of the middle class that is directly attributable to China’s WTO membership?
- How has China redefined its governance and political model in the face of changes to the political economy due to pressures prior to or after WTO membership?
- What has privatization and the growth of the Chinese elite done to bolster the growth of the middle class after China joined the WTO?
- What are the changes the Chinese government has overtly announced after WTO membership relating to the political economy which have caused the improvement of the individual earning capacities and capabilities of ordinary Chinese people?
The central element of the paper is to identify the changes in institutional arrangements after WTO membership that relates to social classes and social structures that have occurred in China over the past decade.
Research Questions & Academic Debate
China is a totalitarian country that has one-party and restricts the activities and processes in the country to the interest of the single party that rules the nation. Power is centered on the Communist Central Committee that takes decisions that binds the military, arms of government and all the units of the state. The membership of the Central Committee and the affairs of China are limited to the decisions of this committee and things are not very democratic or transparent when compared to western models of democracy.
However, unlike the Soviet Union that grinded to a halt due to the discontention of the people, many analysts predict that China’s Communism will gradually change with the modification of its human rights structures and systems. This is because China’s social systems and structures are strongly steeped in Communism and it is only a gradualist procedure that will make changes to the whole system and this can be done when there is enough prosperity and people are aware of their rights.
Therefore, this research examines how the social classes of the country have been improved after WTO membership. It will assess the main gaps in the existing system and how the WTO membership has either pushed or retarded the transition to democracy.
Importance of Research Question to Academic Field
This research will assess the growth of the middle class and the move towards privatization that is directly linked to the empowerment of people in China due to the WTO membership and the changes in the political economy. The findings will lay the foundation for better analysis of China’s polity and provide an appropriate recommendation for the streamlining and directing of things in the country.
How to Address the Research Questions
The research will examine important secondary sources and reports that have been put together by various international agencies as well as the Chinese government. This will be done by a critical review of literature as well as an analysis of reports about things that have occurred. A deductive research approach will be used to match facts with circumstances in order to provide a theory on the role of the improvement of the economic situation of China due to the opening up of the economy and how this has affected the human rights records and structures of China.
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