China Education

[Matt]

Alex Tabarrok posts this chart of burgeoning educational attainment in China, and says that though "Many people worry about what the Chinese education explosion means for the United States but I am optimistic." I agree. In fact, if anything the thing to worry about is that these kind of statistics are too optimistic about what's taking place in China -- oftentimes you'll hear a claim about some Asian country producing ninety trillion new engineers a year and it turns out that they're just counting every repairman as an engineer.

That said, the underlying point is that a better-educated, more-prosperous China is something Americans should welcome. Not only is it good for Chinese people (hardly a small thing) but it's good for Americans, too.

Comments

a better-educated, more-prosperous China is something Americans should welcome. Not only is it good for Chinese people (hardly a small thing) but it's good for Americans, too.

This is provided, of course, that China's government doesn't use its newfound wealth to do something really, really bad.

Posted by Mr. Noah | May 29, 2008 12:20 PM

Yes, it will be good to have a more educated workforce in China, but, on the other had, that will probably prompt economists and news columnists and the like to perform a volte face and argue vehemently against the detriments of free trade, creating more tension between us and them.

Posted by Jack | May 29, 2008 12:36 PM

So, you fear monkeys with robotic arms but not pandas?

Sure, they look all cuddly and cute now. Until there's an army of IronPandas...

Posted by SoCalJustice | May 29, 2008 12:37 PM

SoCal - exactly. An army of Panda controlled robots is definitly not something we want to see. *Cue the Imperial March*

Posted by MS | May 29, 2008 12:51 PM

In much the same way, rapid economic growth in Wilhelmine Germany was good for the British empire.

Posted by gcochran | May 29, 2008 12:59 PM

All we really have left to do is get a critical mass of Chinese students to say, "to hell with all this math and science crap. I'm going to major in Finance." Their competitive advantage will disappear in a generation!

Posted by aatos | May 29, 2008 1:18 PM

that China's government doesn't use its newfound wealth to do something really, really bad.

Like what?

Posted by asl | May 29, 2008 1:25 PM

I personally know two people who bought masters degrees in China -- meaning they simply bribed some guy and got a degree. And not from Hollywood Upstairs Medical College, either. I wonder how that sort of thing figures into the statistics, because that is not at all uncommon.

Posted by jim | May 29, 2008 1:25 PM

All we really have left to do is get a critical mass of Chinese students to say, "to hell with all this math and science crap. I'm going to major in Finance." Their competitive advantage will disappear in a generation!

Posted by aatos | May 29, 2008 1:27 PM

Like what?

I don't know. Start a world war? Seems unlikely.

I was just trying to think of a reason MY's reasonable-sounding statement might have been wrong.

I guess China's government could realistically use its wealth to do smaller-scale bad stuff, like supporting dictatorships, overturning international institutions, conquering Taiwan, etc. Who knows whether it will do any of that, or whether those things would outweigh the benefit of the Chinese people being richer.

Posted by Mr. Noah | May 29, 2008 1:57 PM

I hate to say it, but Mr. Noah is pretty accurate. Wealth is no guarantee that a country won't do some cockeyed harmful stuff. What was the name of that really rich country that picked a fight with another country halfway around the world? Just recently, too.

Posted by Jeffrey Davis | May 29, 2008 2:53 PM

France? But they were just trying to rein in Sudan from hurting Chad!

Posted by Quietus | May 29, 2008 3:33 PM

MY - That said, the underlying point is that a better-educated, more-prosperous China is something Americans should welcome. Not only is it good for Chinese people (hardly a small thing) but it's good for Americans, too.

The prevalent view of the British elites in 1910 was that the English masses should welcome Germany taking the lead away from England in most industries, outsourcing jobs and production once in the UK to Germany, and cheer Germany leading in production of new scientists, engineers was GREAT for the UK, because the UK elites could then be the main beneficiaries of boosted global trade and sell the Germans the financial, legal, and import-export services the UK still controlled.
Moreover, more prosperity for Germany meant more world peace and democracy and enlightenment as happy prosperous Germans gladly joined the harmonious international economic and colonial empire system.

Didn't work out that way....

Posted by chris ford | May 29, 2008 5:09 PM

Charlie Munger put it this way:

"So, you start in a place where you’ve got a weak nation of backward peasants, a billion and a quarter of them, and in the end they’re going to be a much bigger, stronger nation than you are, maybe even having more and better atomic bombs. Well, Ricardo did not prove that that’s a wonderful outcome for the former leading nation. "

Posted by gcochran | May 29, 2008 5:15 PM

Chris Ford; care to source any of that? Sounds like crap to me.

And Matt, I wouldn't get to happy/worried yet. I've taught in a Chinese University. Some of them are very good, many of them are junior high school level. My students used to line up outside the door in double-file waiting for me to come and escort them in. It took nearly a month for me to convince them not to (I had to tell them my class was for studying western culture, so they should behave like western students during my class only).

I guess I should mention, for fear of creating the wrong impression, this was a very sub-par university. When I introduced myself to the students and asked about their backgrounds, the most common answer was "my parents are peasants. I'm at this university because its better than ploughing."

This will change of course, but raw numbers never tell the real story in China.

Posted by domino | May 29, 2008 7:18 PM

Wow,

What an ignorant set of comments!

As an biochemist I've been astonished and impressed with the rise of Chinese scientists. For decades the US (and a few other countries)have benefited from importing bright young Chinese students, most of whom stayed in their new country(s).

Now China has a number of scientific institutes and universities that are world-class. This is especially obvious in my field... the biochemistry of plants. The Chinese currently have some of the best scientists working on the genetics and biochemistry of rice. Similarly they have world-class institutes that focus on particular aspects of human physiology and health. In general they are on track to dominate genetics research. They really are that good and the government has focused a lot of investment on various aspects of the molecular biology / genetics revolution.

Now you might say "who cares about rice?". The answer is that rice is the model cereal. It has the simplest genetics of any of the major food crops. Understanding rice at a deep level will also aid in improving most other cereals such as corn and wheat.

I suppose I'm too late to get into this thread, but thought it useful to inject a little reality

Posted by Enzymer | May 29, 2008 7:39 PM

Noah: "I guess China's government could realistically use its wealth to do smaller-scale bad stuff, like supporting dictatorships, overturning international institutions, conquering Taiwan, etc."

Yeah, God forbid that the Chinese compete in the areas where the US generally excels...

That sneaky Oriental wisdom might just undo the genius of George Bush and Dick Cheney.

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | May 29, 2008 10:31 PM

>>As an biochemist I've been astonished and impressed with the rise of Chinese scientists.

The post was about numbers, not about the elite. The elite are impressive in any country. And when you look at the the vast majority of Chinese students/colleges, they have a long way to go yet. Corruption is rampant in Chinese universities (as it is at all levels of Chinese society). And by and large, the quality of "research" that comes out of most Chinese universities is barely above high school level. Note that I said "by and large."

Posted by jim | May 30, 2008 1:14 PM