What Does China Get from WTO Membership and NTR?
After 20 years of double-digit economic expansion, China’s per capita income has reached $700 per year, roughly $2 a day, but China’s economic growth is slowing. Estimates tell us that 26-31 million Chinese are unemployed; that 13.8 million receive only partial payment for their labor; that 100 million Chinese are “internal immigrants” having abandoned the countryside in pursuit of urban work; and that 12 to 20 million Chinese live in “absolute poverty” lacking the food, shelter, and clothing essential for life. In these circumstances economic growth is essential. Since the armed repression of Tiananmen Square, the Chinese “social contract” has been widely understood to be acceptance of Communist Party rule in exchange for continuing economic modernization and growth. The Chinese government, like many in the Third World, sees foreign investment as an engine for job creation, economic growth, increased technological sophistication, and engagement with the global capitalist economy on so
