Introduction
Globalization is a phenomenon that has continued to shape the world’s economies due to the increased exchange of ideas, products, and cultural aspects, among others. Through international cooperation, countries across the globe facilitate trade by lowering trade barriers, lifting capital controls, and liberalization of foreign exchange restrictions.
This scenario has empowered many businesses to access enormous consumer markets across transnational borders, significantly boosting their sales. However, international integration has significant effects on social, political, and economic spheres of life. China, which is a rapidly growing economy, has experienced a tremendous impact of globalization due to increased international cooperation and trade. As the country focuses on expanding its businesses across transcontinental borders, the effects have caused significant concern. This essay delves into the impacts of globalization on reshaping the Chinese economy, rural land, urban places, workplace dynamics, and the environment.
Impact on the Physical Environment
Environmental degradation resulting from globalization is not a new phenomenon in China, and the country has made attempts to solve it. Environmentalists claim that globalization has led to an increased global demand for products, creating a need for expanding production. This scenario results in the abuse of the physical environment and the overuse of natural resources, especially in the manufacturing industry. Increased economic activities in China have given rise to the amplified release of industrial pollutants and environmental deterioration spanning all ecosystems (Khan & Yardley, 2007). The most visible effect of globalization on the country’s physical environment is air pollution. Regrettably, biodiversity loss and water pollution have also raised severe ecological issues. China is the world’s largest source of Sulphur oxides and chlorofluorocarbon pollutants. Most of the country’s atmosphere is covered with industrial dust and airborne contaminants, which also reach the territories of neighboring countries (Sengupta, 2020). The fact that China consumes enormous amounts of natural resources and generates pollutants aggravates the pressure on the physical environment. Globalization is also exacerbating land degradation owing to increased industrialization, urbanization, and economic development.
Working Conditions and Wages
Globalization is a primary factor that has contributed to the provision of expatriate employment opportunities in China. Most salary scales and employee benefits for foreign nationals are based on US or Western European standards. While China may be providing jobs to millions of citizens and foreigners, numerous questions have been raised over low wages and poor working conditions. Although there are no consistent figures of payments, investigators reveal that a large percentage of laborers receive a monthly salary of $300 or less (Bergman, 2017). China Labor Watch (CLW), an activist group that monitors and defends the rights of workers, recently reported that many factories had unsafe working environments. While some organizations have tried to make the conditions better, foreign laborers still report cases of low wages, overworking, and institutionalized discrimination based on color. For instance, there is widespread abuse of migrant workers in Beijing, and the government shows little effort to protect them. Approximately 200 expatriate laborers flocked the country in recent years in search of employment opportunities (Bergman, 2017). Nevertheless, they often experience problems such as improper healthcare, withheld wages, hazardous working conditions, and possible exploitation by Chinese nationals.
Housing and Housing Costs
Economic changes resulting from globalization have had significant effects on China’s housing market. Indeed, the country now holds the most significant construction market in the world. Despite the current boom in the housing sector, there is an expected demographic shift and growth, especially in urban areas due to not only the continued influx of foreign nationals but also the increasing Chinese population (Fidler & Sabir, 2019). Housing prices have skyrocketed faster than income, a situation that has made rental services unaffordable for many people. The intervention of foreign investors in the real estate industry can ease vacancy rates soon. However, China places stringent regulations that restrict foreign nationals from accessing land for development purposes. The law requires a migrant to acquire property through registered Chinese dealers, which makes it difficult for many foreigners to invest in the housing market. Nonetheless, the scale of foreign direct investment in this sector has been rising gradually, especially in the first and second-tier cities.
Political Impacts: Protest and Political Change
Globalization is a critical factor that is continuously changing China’s political sphere in many ways. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, many nations have begun to reexamine their relationship with the country. Various actors associated with the Chinese Communist Party (CPP) are feared to interfere with the country’s democratic state using concealed, intimidating, and corruptive means. CPP is redefining globalization as a weapon to win the global stage (Schrader, 2020). The need to intensify global interconnectedness in terms of technology and trade has become a common topic among many Chinese leaders. This phenomenon is not new considering that the United States ascended to global power against the same forces (Schrader, 2020). For many decades, China has been persuaded to integrate with the rest of the world in a bid to make it embrace various standards acceptable by the international community. National renewal and advocacy for global leadership have become unavoidable as the country steers towards establishing sustainable economic development.
Cultural Impacts: Adoption of Western Values and Tastes
The Chinese community is known for its traditionalism and adherence to the core values and ideologies of Confucianism. The CPP plays a vital role in ensuring that people do not lose grip on the country’s historical foundations. China’s president, Xi Jinping, is particularly adamant about the infiltration of Western values (Fish, 2017). Nevertheless, globalization is a game-changing singularity that forces change even into the most complex systems. Various studies on youth attitudes indicate that many Chinese youths have an overpowering taste for popular Western culture. Numerous other surveys that were completed over the last ten years show that a large population of Chinese college students had an affinity for liberal democracy as opposed to a single system. Foreign political influences, mainly from Japan and the United States, have been met with counterforces in a bid to subdue any interests in radicalizing the country’s young generation.
Conclusion
International integration has become a powerful tool for the exchange of ideas, culture, and technology globally. Irrespective of this proposition, its impacts have had significant effects on urban and rural development, workplace dynamics, political landscape, and the environment, among other aspects. There is a need to embrace low emission methods of production to cut down on pollution levels in China as continued contamination of the atmosphere with poisonous gases will exacerbate diversity loss and climate change. Further, the country should revise its labor laws to improve wages and ensure safer working conditions both for national and expatriate employees. Expensive housing tariffs should also be reviewed to make houses affordable to the poor workers since they drive the country’s industries. Lastly, China leaders need to understand international dynamics pertinent to modernism and allow its population to integrate with the rest of the world in matters that contribute to national development.
References
Khan, J., & Yardley, J. (2007). As China roars, pollution reaches deadly extremes. New York Times. Web.
Fish, E. (2017). Why’s Beijing so worried about Western values infecting China’s Youth?ChinaFile. Web.
Bergman, K. (2017). What you need to know about labor conditions in China, and how you can take a stand. Relevant Magazine. Web.
Fidler, D., & Sabir, H. (2019). The cost of housing is tearing our society apart. World Economic Forum. Web.
Sengupta, S. (2020). Economic giants are restarting. Here’s what it means for climate change. New York Times. Web.
Schrader, M. (2020). China is weaponizing globalization: The Chinese Communist Party has turned global ties into its own tools. Foreign Policy. Web.