Reflective Journal 4

Question: Reflect on the societal problems faced by China and America.

China faced many political, economic and social problems which had affected the progress and welfare of its country. Some of such problems include corruption, the rich-poor income gap. In fact, some of these problems are influenced by China’s cultural system.

Firstly, corruption in China is not only immoral, but it also affects the country’s economic progress indirectly. Corrupted leaders in China accept bribes as they are able to enjoy rewards while serving only small amount of people who offered bribes to them. Such actions can lead to political instability which results could harm China’s economic progress. I feel that the high corruption rates is caused by the belief in the importance of guanxi (relationship) in China, in which people who are wealthy or of higher status forge relationship with officials of higher authority in order to advise or urge to authorities to support them. However, if China adopts the American’s belief of equality for all, things would have turn out differently as the leaders would have to treat all people in the society equally regardless of status or wealth. With this mentality, people in China would dare not accept bribes to benefit only a selected group of people in society. Although this may be ironical to the case, I feel that Bao Zheng (包青天) is a perfect example of one who treats everyone equally and does not accept bribes at all

I feel that China’s rich-poor income gap is an economic as well as social problem in China. The rich-poor income gap caused the restrained in consumption capacity of medium and low income groups which reduced the domestic consumption in China. While its domestic demand decreases, the wealthy continues to prosper as the government now greatly relies on exports and investments to improve its economic progress. This may lead to social tension which would eventually lead to political instability and economic problems. Personally, I felt that Chinese should be more bonded and should work towards a common goal to pull the lower-income group out of poverty. In other words, I feel that the practise of harmony in China can urge Chinese to be more united in tackling the problem of widening rich-poor divide. Ironically, harmony (大同) is an aspect of the Confucian ideology which China is trying to promote. However, I felt that Chinese is not practicing enough harmony and they do not have the sense of responsibility to work for the greater good of society.

In America, I feel that its bipartite government is a restrain to the implementations of many policies in America. As we all know, it often takes a lot of time to implement a policy as the Republican Party and the Democratic Party often have different viewpoints about certain matters and this often leads to unhappiness in many Americans as they could be affected by these delays. Examples of problems caused by the slow implementation of policies include the lack of investments in healthcare service, as well as the long time taken to pull out troops from the Middle East. I feel that the America can adopt and integrate the one-party system of China as it is very efficient and the policies proposed do not have to be discussed over several parties. However, I feel that America can also adopt Singapore’s government system as it has one dominant party which receives feedback and criticism from the population and other opposition parties. Although there may be criticisms and differing opinions from the population, the dominant party has a final say over the implementation of policies. With the emphasis on freedom of rights in America, I doubt that they can fully adopt the ruling system of other countries as the opposition parties play an important role in determining government policies as well.

I think that the high teenage crime rate in America is also a serious problem in its society. These crimes include murders as well as drug abuse and they can harm the lives of many youths in America. These youths are future leaders of America and it is indeed distressing to see the rise in teenage crime in America. I guess the particularly high crime rate in America is due to the strong emphasis of freedom in American culture. Furthermore, the increasing amount of violence and ‘gangs’ in the American media may also has an influence on teenagers’ perception today. To tackle this problem, I feel that American should put a stronger emphasis on moral significance which is one of the values in the Confucian ideology. The high crime rate had definitely reflected the lack of moral values in many American teenagers and hence I feel that by placing a stronger emphasis on moral significance, Americans would be able to adhere to moral ethics. However, this is only a suggestion for a skeletal guideline that American youths should follow in order to prevent crime rates. With the strong belief in liberty and freedom of rights, I doubt that Americans would really uphold moral values if they are given a chance to.

All in all, I felt that the societal problems in America and China cannot be fully addressed as there may be other restrictions such as the clash of cultures, or the inability of the governments to uphold certain practices which may benefit the country due to unspecified reasons.

(891 words)