Well for one getting hired illegally will be extremely more difficult in the future since they already started this crackdown which will lead to more tightened security in that sector. 

An interesting question which I also wonder about.

Firstly business, China is looking to position herself as a major player on the world stage and we see many foreign companies having set up here.  Having said that there are many areas in the business world where China still has a long way to go. Home-grown products here are often seen as second rate to foreign products and yet despite the high levels of import duty applied to imported products people still choose them when they can afford to do so. I assume the high levels of duty are a protectionist measure to assist Chinese industry. Surely the better way is to bring the quality of Chinese products up to standard so that they become the first choice for people rather than the last. This must be the ultimate protectionist move, but I see very little evidence of this happening. There are exceptions with companies like Haier who sell globally and we have had very good after-sales care from them, but they are very much in the minority in this regard. Chinese people prefer to buy foreign cars because they perceive them to be better quality than Chinese, we see the majority of Chinese airlines flying foreign built aircraft, in the world of computers foreign is often seen as better. China cannot just compete by offering low prices, if she is to compete as a true world leader she has to develop her own products to a standard that not only do the indigenous population want to buy, but overseas markets have some of these products on their wish list too. Apart from product quality the ethics of the typical Chinese business are appalling; there is generally no sense of after sales service and the level of honesty is somewhat doubtful to say the least. Chinese companies have to learn to honour the intellectual property rights of other companies, the thinking that says copy rather than create will seriously hold China back. This aspect is probably why Apple only assembles products here rather than develop them. Honesty and trustworthiness is something that western companies value and China has to step up to those standards if she has any hope of attaining the position in the global business world that she aspires to. My honest opinion about where China will be in a few years’ time is she will be pretty much where she is now. To be globally recognised as a major player she has to let the yuan float free, a painful process to begin with but one that will benefit her in the long run. Already we are seeing some foreign companies relocating, or choosing to initially set up, in other countries such as Vietnam or Indonesia due to lower costs. If too many go this will damage China.

If China is to develop her own high tech industries she needs well educated people to drive those industries forward. Educational establishments in China need to be aware that their prime objective should be to educate not indoctrinate. They should encourage children to question everything, to think outside the classroom. As a side question given the levels of education here can anyone tell me why they attend school for the hours that they do and why there is so much homework, because in terms of the results educationally it doesn’t seem to be working. Children need to be taught how to think and no amount of learning by rote will ever achieve that. Mostly Chinese degrees are not recognised at all abroad, I know when my stepson wanted to do a masters course in England after graduating from Nanning University they were not prepared to accept him unless he did a foundation course first to show whether he was capable of sitting a Masters course. Education here is patchy at best and this is not in the interests of China’s future. Where are the home produced scientists, engineers, doctors’ etcetera to come from to push China properly onto the world stage. My wife told me last week that Chinese children work very hard when at school, but at university things get easier. I thought the object of going to university was to achieve a higher standard of education that would be recognised by future employers as being of real value, and so I expect university work to be more rigorous, not easier. I still have to check with my stepson on his experience at university ti see if this really is the case. In terms of education where will China be in a few years time? Just where she is now. She might change in about fifty years if, and only if, the radical shake up of teaching methods here start to change today and I see no sign of that happening. On the contrary I hear too many stories of parents buying pass marks for their kids, and schools passing students regardless of ability.  If the parents and schools  do not realise the value of real education over a purchased piece of paper what hope is there.

Medically China is stuck in a mixture of some scientifically proven treatments, some Chinese traditional medicines, and a healthy, or maybe unhealthy, dose of old wives tales. Western medicine is not always the answer as we all know of medicines in the west that are grossly overpriced and sometimes not as effective as the drug companies would have us believe. However medicines do have to undergo rigorous testing before being allowed on the market, and even then things can go wrong. Thalidomide was a classic example of this. Generally though things work well. I am sure there must be some cures in CTM that really work, but the whole of CTM needs to be clinically trialled at the highest level of clinical research. Those cures shown to be effective should be kept, and those that are not should be banned outright. The qualifications of doctors must be upgraded to that of the highest clinical standards. We here too many stories like being put on drips for everything, and one I remember reading on here the cause of a throat infection being that the patient ate too much wet fruit. They are relatively minor examples but when we come to doctors diagnosing cancer where it does not exist just to be able to sell more expensive drugs things become a lot more serious. Where will China be medically in a few years’ time, pretty much where she is now.  Due to a lack of education, corruption (red envelopes to doctors) and still a belief in old wives tales.

Socially China is a massive country that appears to some that do not know her to be advancing rapidly. However it is like an extravagantly large Christmas present wrapped in wonderful paper and ribbons. Take the wrapping off and open the box and there is a tiny present inside. It is all show, or at least nearly all of it is. I have been visiting China for six years and have lived here for just over a year and I have meet many Chinese people who I like very much, but a lot of the people I see here are third world peasants trying to live in a first/second world way and it does not work. Now before I get flamed for that comment let me try to put it in context. I have met very few people here I actively do not like, I get along with nearly everyone and I do not blame them for their circumstances, but if you are going to uproot people who have had very little education from the rural environments they are used to and place them in the cities they are going to bring their way of life and habits with them. Some of them change some do not, and they are relocated generally either because the government wants their land and just moves them to the city, or the city is the only place where they can work. Hence the huge migrant work population here. The question is “What changes do you think China will got encounter in the next few years”, and this has to be factored into the answer. Again it is down to education.

I think the biggest changes China will encounter in the next few years will be an ever increasing gap between the poor and the rich. China is a communist/socialist country which has embraced capitalism in a far more aggressive way than the west ever did. This is going to cause social unrest as it does in every other country with a rich/poor divide like this. The rich and better educated, or at least the comparatively rich are going to want more say in what happens here, they are going to want more of what they see in the outside world and will increasingly question why they do not have it. The poor are going to want their share of the prosperity. How the CCP handles this I do not know, all I do know is that there is not a major country in the world at this moment where communism has worked. I am not suggesting China just becomes like the west, that is not the answer for her. For all I know China may be the one country where they prove to the world that communism can work to the benefit of all. We hear of the CCPs hope for a harmonious society, unfortunately I think the next few years are going to move further away from that ideal, but if it can truly be achieved I wish them luck with bringing it about.

Anonymous,you posted a serious question with a fairly trivial example. Are you Chinese, and I am guessing you are I would be interested in a reply from you as to where you think your country is going to be in a few years and some reasoning as to why. Honestly was sitting an entrance exam to university the only thing you could think of that may change.