Image building and education lagging - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

China's economy might be steaming ahead again, but that does not mean all is well. Shaun Rein identifies in Business Week two key problems the country has to deal with: its image abroad and its education.

Being a superpower is no longer about the ability to drop enough bombs to obliterate the entire earth. Economic power and the ability to launch chaos via cyber and financial warfare should define superpower status....

While it is clear from the Pew Center's data that 86% of Chinese people support the government, it is equally clear that China does not do as good a job with the rest of the world. The recent misguided attacks on it by people like New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) about currency policy, Beijing's disagreement with Google (GOOG), and the criticisms over the arrest of Rio Tinto's (RTP) former China head Stern Hu show that China needs to get better at soft power...

And: Despite the commonly held belief that China continues to graduate top-notch engineers, the fact is that the education system is not adequately preparing its students for a global business world. Most of the top students go to the U.S. to continue their graduate studies at universities like Harvard and Stanford because it is difficult to get the training they need at home.

More in Business Week.

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Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your conference? Do get in touch.

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