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China’s big dilemma: Finding new cities like Shenzhen
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Thunderbird graduate Laurence Lipsher has watched Shenzhen grow from a small fishing village to a sprawling metropolis of 13 million people in less than 25 years. The city’s rapid development has been astounding, but Lipsher says China will need to repeat the feat again and again to keep pace with growth as the country’s rural poor move to big cities looking for new opportunities. “China has to develop a half dozen cities like this over the next 50 years, plus take 100 million more people and put them into the current existing cities,” Lipsher says. He calls this China’s big dilemma. | Podcast: Laurence Lipsher on China’s vision for 21st century (15:50)
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Chinese government investment in education, health care and social security will help turn a nation of savers into a nation of spenders, but Hong Kong accountant Laurence Lipsher said Nov. 6 that the changes won’t happen overnight. “Twenty-five or 50 years from now, you’re going to see a lot of impact and change,” Lipsher told an audience of about 125 alumni at the Thunderbird Global Reunion in Macau. “But 25 or 50 years isn’t even a blip on the radar screen of Chinese civilization, which goes back 5,000 to 7,000 years.” Lipsher, author of 
Chinese efforts to develop Africa have led to a new era of colonialism that sometimes stirs resentment on the continent, two Thunderbird alumni said Nov. 6 during a panel discussion at the Thunderbird Global Reunion in Macau. “Instead of employing Africans, they’re bringing over thousands of Chinese,” said Chris Fussner, a 1982 Thunderbird graduate who lives in Singapore. “Africans are greatly resenting this new Chinese colonialism.” | 