China: How It Became an Economic Superpower & What Comes Next

Facilitator: Sidna Rachid

Contact information: (970) 215-9343, sidnarachid@hotmail.com

Class length: 2 hours, Mondays

Class time: 9:30-11:30 am

Class duration: 8 weeks, starts late: Sept 14—Nov 2nd

Place: Foxtail 2

Class size: 32

Text: China’s Economy by Arthur Kroeber, and newspaper articles Presentations: optional

Course Description:

When I was growing up in the 1950s, whenever I didn’t clean my plate, my mother would say, “Eat your food. Think of the starving children in China.” Back then, the Chinese were miserably poor. Times have certainly changed.

In 1979, China’s annual income was $200 per person, less than 10% of the world’s average. Just 40 years later in 2018, annual income per person was $9,400 about 84% of the world average.

How did a poor communist country like China manage to lift hundreds of millions out of poverty and in the process become the world’s largest manufacturer and second largest economy? Take this class and find out.

For the first five weeks of class, we’ll cover the book which will help answer the question – How did China become an economic superpower. During the last three weeks, we’ll use news articles to find out what’s happening in China today concerning: Advanced A. I., rare earth metals, robotics, scientific research at universities, and global politics.