The Middle Kingdom

China has one of the oldest and richest cultures in the world that extends to the outflows of more than five thousand years old history. The Middle Kingdom is a traditional name given to the state with a large territory and population. The industrialization process modernized the country but it will not allow outrunning the Western countries because of the preventive policy of authority. Even though, the growth of population brought not only demography overload but also economic burdens. The paper explains the meaning of the concept of the Middle Kingdom as a precious part of the Chinese national values that will never change neither in the policy nor in the society.

Mostly, the state was named after the royal dynasty leading the empire as a sign of respect of a wise emperor. Ethnocentric acceptation of the own state is known for many empires, especially the ones with multicultural nations included specific economic and social enclave which has a vast powerful influence on a large territory. Keeping this territory united requires strong efforts of uniting people under a single idea, and ethnocentrism is the best argument satisfying ambitions of the great kingdoms on domination on the part of the world they occupy. Despite all, traditionally, common name of the Chinese state was Zhongguo’ – the Middle Kingdom.

After decades of economic isolation, China established close diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union which definitely influenced political and legal outlook of the Middle Kingdom. Since the end of 1970s – beginning of 1980s, the Chinese authorities from all provinces recognized how unprofitable their conservative policy was. According to Y.Y. Kueh (2008), “China recognized the losses, […], and opened the door even more widely, in their effort to court foreign capital” (p. 47). Since China provided an open-door policy, new foreign investments came and brought a wide diversity of services and products. The income of technologies allowed the modernization of the Chinese inner producing spheres and enclosed the outcomes to global standards. However, this modernization had a hybrid character because it did not let in the European and American technologies so far to force out the Soviet approaches in the economy. Consequently, China has a symbiosis of capitalism and communism on one territory, and in the future prospective it will not make this state a global leader in the economy as it has too many obstacles for that.

Speaking about the growing population issue, China is one of the leading countries in the world struggling against large families. Since for more than a century the amount of the Chinese increased to a critical point that led not only to social but economic and infrastructure consequences, the government commits measures. In the entire world, the Chinese people have a deep feeling of their national identification separately without any hint on cosmopolitism as, for instance, Americans have. Even abroad, the Chinese strongly support their culture and traditions: they unite in smaller communities and provide smaller states inside of the country relying on freedoms and rights guaranteed by the democracy constitutions and law. However, the Chinese authorities recognized disadvantages of increasingly growing population that leads to misbalance and domination of requests over goods. Hence, since 1990s, the government provided implementation of the policy dedicated to decrease of the population through reforms in the social and medical services, educational programs and changes in the peoples’ mindset. However, even decrease of the population will have negative consequences such as aging population that needs vital supplies. According to Feng Wang (2011), “The size of the country’s population aged 60 and above will increase dramatically, growing by 100 million in just 15 years (from 200 million in 2015 to over 300 million by 2030)” (n. p.). This is a valuable argument on the consequences of cultural approach to family life as a part of national outlook of the Middle Kingdom. Particularly, this tradition was started by the ancient kings who had many concubines and uncounted number of children. The divine power of emperor was so high that his lifestyle was an example for all Chinese people.

Thus, the industrial development and population issues in the Middle Kingdom have both positive and negative sides. In the context of industrialization, China achieved much cusses and outran its neighbor countries. However, the Chinese symbiosis of capitalism and communism will not allow this country to take leading position worthy the title of the Middle Kingdom. Growing and ageing population has also many weak sides but at the same time, it shows how prioritized is saving of the national cultural autochthony for the Chinese people.