Rising Confidence Behind the “Chinese Dream”

Since November 2012, the Chinese leaders have been calling for the Chinese people to become confident in achieving the “Chinese Dream”. Given the mounting political, economic and social problems that China is facing and low rankings China receives on some key indicators on a global scale of comparison, one has to wonder where China’s confidence comes from. This study suggests that what gives China the reasons to be confident is not how well China has been performing in absolute terms, but how China has been performing relative to its neighboring countries. This study has selected three of China’s biggest neighbors, Japan, Russia and India, to compare with China on seven systems of performance assessment which cover the areas of government effectiveness, economic confidence, foreign direct investment confidence, intentional homicide, gender gap, international tourism, and global competitiveness. It finds that while Japan is still ahead of China in a few areas of performance assessment, China is closing in on Japan fast. On the other hand, Russia and India are trailing China in most areas of performance assessment and the gap between them is widening. Throughout the 20th Century, Russia, China and India all struggled to pursue their dreams of becoming strong and prosperous in the face of challenges from the Western powers. Today, China seems one step ahead of the rest toward achieving its dream. Behind the “Chinese Dream” project is the rising confidence about China’s current position and China’s future.