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1-Page Summary of The Elephant and the Dragon

The Chinese Dragon and the Indian Elephant

For a long time, the economies of China and India were stagnant. Their populations remained poor for generations until 1978 when China’s communist leaders removed restrictions that had kept their economy from growing. At this same time, India did not change its policies and continued to stagnate economically. Nowadays, China is much more prosperous than India because it changed what was holding back its economy while India did not make any changes at all.

As of 2003, organizations around the world had spent about $700 billion in China. They also built manufacturing facilities there and created jobs for millions of impoverished Chinese people. For the first time in their lives, they were able to afford consumer goods such as cars and computers and cellphones. At the same time, India stayed frozen in its ways with a significant proportion of its citizens living wretchedly poor lives.

In the 1980s, China opened up to economic opportunities for its citizens. By 2003, their income was 100% higher than India’s. Both countries speak English and have a democratic government system. However, China is an authoritarian state and has no standardized legal system while India has a well-established court system. Despite all these differences in culture and economy, communist China raced past democratic India economically by 2003.

Compare and Contrast

Although India is a capitalist country, it sometimes adopts an anti-business stance. China is rigidly communist and usually supports business. Recently, the two countries have been working together more because of their shared interest in business. In 1991, India started its own economic reforms with help from the government and private businesses. As a result, many businesses flourished quickly while bureaucracy was reduced significantly. Naidu says that reforms were slow to start but now they are taking off successfully.

China and India have undergone many changes in recent years. They’ve opened their economies to the world, which has had a big impact on the global economy. Prices are lower than ever on many products, jobs have been lost in America, and pollution has increased in both countries. American companies now look to China and India for future workers and customers.

From Mao Zedong to Modern Reforms

China is the world’s toy box. It houses thousands of factories that produce toys for the global economy. China also produces a large share of shoes, auto parts and electronics in the world.

This is different from the way Chairman Mao ran China. He established it in 1949 and then forced farmers to give a third of their crops to officials for distribution in cities three years later, as part of his Great Leap Forward initiative.

To turn China into a steel powerhouse, Mao forced the Chinese masses to give their pots and pans to officials who would melt them down. This took time away from farming, which led to famine. From 1959-1962, 30-40 million people starved in China.

In 1966, Mao started the Cultural Revolution which was a time of political and social upheaval. It led to chaos in China as people were persecuted for their views. In 1976, Mao died and Deng Xiaoping became the leader of China. In 1978, peasants revolted against collective farming rules because it was making them poorer. They produced more food than ever before and helped improve living conditions in China.

The Xiaogang peasants in Anhui Province were the first to try and implement Deng’s reforms. This inspired other farmers throughout China to do the same. The result was an economic revolution that transformed China into a robust market economy.