Jonathan Fenby lauds China's efforts in dealing with poverty

China has brought more people out of poverty than any other country in the history of humanity.

Jonathan Fenby, managing director of the China team at Trusted Sources, an independent provider of research and consulting on emerging markets for institutional investors, corporations and governments was speaking at a session titled 'What change in China means for the world' at an ideas conclave in Bambolim.

Fenby said much of this was possible as "China has been effectively able to direct resources at (tackling) poverty," unlike other developing countries.

He felt that China will soon face many problems such as declining growth, an aging population and a growing middle class which is expressing itself in a much stronger way than ever before through social communication media. He said often corrupt officials were targeted by the middle class through the internet.

Fenby explained that China was attempting to increase domestic consumption of goods it produces since the global consumption has declined as a result of the economic slowdown.

While wages makes up only 37% of the national income in China compared to 65% in the US, China was attempting to push up wages since it wanted to increase consumption.

He felt that China witnesses 1.5 lakh protests (according to official figures) each year as the country's judicial system was weak.

Judges in China swear an oath to the communist party instead of the country or judicial system and since there is little point in going to court, people prefer to go on the streets.

Farming has been China's Achilles heel as the nation's agriculture model was inefficient and backward. He explained that in China, the state owns the land and leases it in small holdings to farmers. The state can take back the land at anytime, he added.

Stating that "China has no foreign policy", Fenby said that China only cared for protecting rulers of countries (including African dictators) who guarantee it supply to raw materials and ensure that there was no interference in the internal affairs of the country especially Tibet.

Chinese middle class was morphing into a materialistic society the new China was "not (about) Marxism, not Confucianism, but materialism."

Fenby said China will soon concentrate on developing its service sector which had not been given much attention so far. He felt that while China had some good environmental laws, many of its cities were polluted as the implementation of the laws was bad.

State governments have a stake in many of the industries and hence do not act against them, he said. The industries do not switch to environmentally-friendly technology as it was too expensive.