The Chinese Path to Sustainable Development
11.02.2009
11.02.2009
12:00 - 13:00
The fourth generation of Chinese Leaders inherited the fastest growing economy in the world. As well as the consequences that more than two decades of uneven development had on the country’s social and economic structure. Regional disparities, rural/urban divide, lack of a welfare system, environmental degradation, widespread corruption, ethnic tensions are only some of the more urgent challenges Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) General Secretary Hu Jintao and his lieutenants are currently called to face in order to safeguard the China’s internal stability. In this scenario, there has been a urge for new developmental objectives for the country as a whole which were traced back in the old Confucian philosophical tradition and in it’s idea of ‘harmonious society’ (Héxié Shèhuì ). The vision of ‘scientific development’ (Kexué Fazhan Guan ) and ‘sustainable development’ (Kechíxù fazhan), which came along this Confucian revival, were presented as the logic evolution of the Marxist thought, and quickly became the rubric under which every advance in social, economic and political fields has to be achieved. What this rhetoric of the ‘harmonious society’ stands for and where it is headed to are some of the issues this seminar will offer some insights on.