Title: China’s government may be communist, but its people embrace capitalism | Pew Research Center
Headings: China’s government may be communist, but its people embrace capitalism
China’s government may be communist, but its people embrace capitalism
Content: China’s government may be communist, but its people embrace capitalism | Pew Research Center
China’s government may be communist, but its people embrace capitalism
By Katie Simmons
While China’s government may be officially communist, the Chinese people express widespread support for capitalism. Roughly three-quarters of the Chinese (76%) agree that most people are better off in a free market economy. And since 2002, the Chinese have consistently been one of the strongest proponents of capitalism compared with other publics around the world, even more so than Americans and Western Europeans. The past 30 years have brought enormous changes to the Chinese economy. In the late 1970s, the government started opening the economy to foreign investment and privatization. With these changes came sky-high economic growth – an average of 10% since 1980. And on Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released figures estimating that China is now the biggest economy in the world, surpassing the United States, though this achievement is up for debate. China’s incredible economic expansion has led the Chinese to be overwhelmingly happy with their economic situation and optimistic about their future, according to a 2014 survey conducted there by the Pew Research Center. But our polling has also shown an undercurrent of unease with conditions in China today, as many complain about inflation, inequality and corruption. A broad majority of Chinese (89%) think things are going well with their economy, making them the happiest on this measure compared with all other 43 countries surveyed this year.