Crisis in China? Not anytime soon - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff
by Fons1 via FlickrChina is not going to implode under massive unrest, anarchy and protest anytime soon, says Tom Doctoroff, CEO, Greater China, J. Walter Thompson in the Huffington Post.

At least short-term, China will not melt down or erupt in protest. Six, twelve or eighteen months of 5% growth is not the stuff of anarchy. Today's demonstrations, increasing in frequency, are decentralized, a function of discrete local grievances, unfair land appropriation and unpaid wages. Taxi strikes notwithstanding, urban centers remain calm.

While the situation looks more challenging in the long term, China's government is positioned very well to deal with the current downturn and has done up to now the right things, writes Doctoroff.

The Chinese, consistent with Confucian imperatives, expect a benign government to pragmatically protect the peoples' interests and, at the same time, project empathy for the plight of the disadvantaged. China's Standing Committee knows, in 2009, a harmonious society will be maintained with equal doses of economic stimulus and humanity, preferably heartfelt.
The Party, for the time being, is managing affairs reasonably well. (An added cushion: the majority of Chinese blame the financial crisis on Western policy makers, not Communist mandarins.) Tax rates have been lowered, commercial loan regulations have been loosened and infrastructure projects, designed to reduce the burden of the poor, have been initiated. Labor and land transfer laws are being reformed to protect, respectively, part-time employees and peasants. Growth will lurch, but not nose-dive.

More at the Huffington Post.
More debate on China's expected soft landing here, triggered off by Shaun Rein.

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Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you are interested in having him at your conference, panel of board meeting, do let us know.

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