PEACE

In part because of the recent collapse in oil prices and China’s shift to a consumer-based economy, China’s GDP growth is forecasted to grow only 6.5 percent in 2016 according to Chinese president Xi Jinping. Many economists, however, fear an even steeper slowdown in China’s economic growth, as low as three percent, a scenario that has been dubbed a “hard landing” for the Chinese economy.

China’s economic weakness could deliver serious blows to not only developing countries but also advanced economies, especially those that rely heavily on China such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea. Even worse, a drop in Chinese demand for oil would only exacerbate the woes of oil-producing nations in the Middle East and Latin America.

China’s Communist Party has been reliant on robust economic growth to legitimatize its control and fuel public support. A slowdown in the economy, especially an economic hard landing, could weaken the Party’s rule.

In China, November 11th is celebrated as “Singles Day.” In the date 11/11, the individual “1’s” are supposed to signify individuals who are not in relationships. But recently, it has turned into China’s version of the American “Black Friday.”

Within the first eight minutes, customers had spent one billion dollars on Alibaba’s popular shopping platforms (Alibaba is a Chinese e-commerce company).

This year featured more than 6 million products from 40,000 merchants and 30,000 brands from 25 countries on Alibaba’s platform. The 24-hour sale was expected to generate 760 million packages for delivery

Five-Year Plan? Reminiscent of the Soviet Union, the Chinese government, though touting a massive semi-open market, structures its economy and society in five-year intervals. The government has only provided an outline of the next Five-Year Plan, the 13th, and will announce more details in March 2016. 

By 2020, the government plans to double GDP per capita and income of its people, a feat requiring 6.5% GDP growth, to become a “moderately prosperous society,” but skeptics doubt the feasibility of such a plan. 

On top of improving its limit on children per family from one to two, the Chinese government has highlighted transitioning the economy’s emphasis on heavy industry to services and innovation.

Recently, Japan’s economy has started to slip into a recession, which provoked action from the Bank of Japan. 

Japan’s central bank stated that sluggish global growth, particularly in China, could jeopardize Haruhiko Kuroda’s (the Governor of the Bank of Japan) 2% inflation goal.

“This is a critical moment” for Japan, said Goshi Kataoka, senior analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting. “Japan is trying to do something different to get itself out of its two lost decades. It must make the public believe things are going to change.”