What China should do in the next five years

For the last three decades, China's economic growth has been extremely fast. At 9% average, that GDP growth is not sustainable. The Chinese government needs to reorient the nation's priorities, such as enforcing intellectual property rights, develop better regulations and standards for product quality (especially food products), enforcing stock market regulation, reducing drastic pollution emissions, further eliminating corruptive practices (as of 2013, good progress in fixing corruptions), further developing social welfare programs...

China should not wait for problems to surface. They should proactively fix / reduce / prevent problems before they happen. You do not get a medal for maintaining infrastructure like drainage or building a reliable bridge, but for building a dam or a bridge in record time. Unfortunately that will eventually fail or collapse. All the corruption in these so-called Tofu projects that include bridges that collapse within months should be results of corruption and the violators should be prosecuted.

Without product quality and intelligent property enforcement, China will not become a stable, developed country. I am very sure about that as there is no such precedent. Without regulations in stock market, no one, foreign or local, would invest too much money into Chinese companies. Without water / air pollutions, folks will not attain a better life no matter how rich they are unless they move out of China.

China should not charge their export goods too low to agitate protection. Product dumping has been identified for some steel products by adding the component costs without firing the furnace. It would invite tariffs and back fires.

In comparison to India, China has more than enough airports, highways... Boosting the GDP with infrastructure is not always an effective payback. They need to calculate the benefit / cost for each large infrastructure project, not just create jobs to avoid social unrest.

As China develops and moves up its value chain, the low-end manufacturing will become less important. China’s home market and the higher-value products will offset the importance of export of low-cost consumer products. Product dumping is not a long-term solution to create jobs, which again is used to reduce social unrest. They need to make a profit and abandon the uncompetitive products for export. Product quality using brand names is important for both the home market and the export market.

Developing the basic welfare system and national health delivery system will reduce the wealth gap and social unrest. It also encourages its citizens to spend more and save less – a major step to expand the home market.

The best solutions for social unrest are:

  Set up fair policy.

  Enforce local government to stick with the fair policy.

  Reduce corruption. To best develop Hong Kong, the Brits fixed the then colonial corruption.

  Set up better safety nets.

The government has to further develop Western democratic practices and adhere to practices to its signing of UN human rights covenants.

China needs to settle disputes with her neighbors. Let both countries drill and explore natural resources. Let the water flow to SE Asia and India as it has been flowing in past centuries.