Globalisation is a broad theme so I have decided to focus on globalisation in relation to China due to my teaching experiences I have made with a sample group of 10 Chinese Intellectual Property (IP) Law students in Munich. The results of my findings regarding China’s influence on the globalisation process in the 21st century will be discussed later in this essay.
During the course of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, China has become more influential globally. This is due to the reason that China is by far the largest country in the world in relation to its population size. After economic liberalisation, China underwent a phase of strong economic growth, continuing throughout the last 20 years during which …show more content…
Surprisingly, the group did not seem averse to Chinese government control and censorship of both national media and foreign media. The group believes that any contrary thoughts and ideologies would hinder China’s economic development. Therefore, they see censorship as a necessary and practical tool for its growth. Several members of the group appeared to be aggrieved by the Western media’s focus on Chinese media censorship. They felt that the West fails to see that China is in a crucial phase of its economic development that had already occurred in the …show more content…
It is clear that they are statistically unrepresentative of the Chinese population. Also, the members of the group have personally benefited from the government via scholarships, thus obviously more supportive towards the government.
Furthermore, they have profited from the typical positive effects of economic growth. Generally speaking, economic growth and urbanisation results in individuals acquiring more wealth and higher disposable income.2 Higher incomes enable the government to collect higher tax revenues. Higher revenues allow the government to cater more to individual needs3. In this context, my student’s generous compensation in the relocation scheme can be understood.
Prior to our discussions, I would have expected such IP Law scholars to be more reflected and considerate towards Western perceptions of China as they study and work in Germany. Despite this, their views concerning the media are somewhat comprehensible. As they believe that censorship is necessary to some extent, they must naturally feel distressed by Western perspectives on such policies. Their argument is basically that the West applies a double-standard, alleging that the West should not (yet) hold China up to its higher standards of individual freedoms (such as free speech or freedom of press) as long as China is still in its earlier stages of economic strengthening. This argument