LESSON PLAN: CHINA'S ECONOMY
Background, Activities and Critical Analysis
By Lara Maupin

Subject(s): government/civics, economics, current events

Time: This lesson is intended to take one - two class periods.

Objectives - Students will:

• Students will identify basic economic facts and indicators for the U.S. and China in order to compare and contrast these two large economies.
• Students will understand ways in which economic differences between the U.S. and China impact the lives of American and Chinese citizens.

Overview:
China is the world's most populous nation and one with an economy that is growing at an amazing rate, lifting the Chinese out of poverty. Despite economic reforms and rapid growth, however, China remains a poor nation. One way to understand this fact is by comparing the Chinese economy to the one with which your students are most familiar, namely, the U.S. In this lesson, your students will examine the economies of the U.S. and China. Doing so will help them understand some of the ways in which life differs for American and Chinese people. This lesson is especially relevant in a government or economics class but may be used in any social studies class in which current events are discussed.

To make these lesson plans better

Correlation to National Standards

Materials

Handouts (provided in printer-friendly PDF format)

• HANDOUT
• TEACHER KEY
• Computers with Internet access or printed copies of articles from the Web sites given below.

Procedure

Part 1: Introduction/Background

Ask your students to locate China on a classroom map if possible. Note how large it is and ask your students if there is another country as big as China. Look at the physical features of China (rivers, mountains, borders with Russia and Southeast Asia) What influence might these features have on the Chinese economy?

Give your students the following background on Chinese history as it relates to China's growing economy.

• When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949 it's political and economic structure was modeled after that of the communist Soviet Union.
• In the 1950s China conducted a massive economic and social reconstruction program.
• In the late 1950s Mao broke with the Soviet model and began the Great Leap Forward with disastrous results such as widespread famine.
• In the 1960s and 1970s Deng Xiaoping and other leaders pushed for pragmatic economic reforms. The Cultural Revolution was an ideological struggle within the Communist Party resulting in chaos and anarchy.
• 1980s reform policies resulted in a rise in the standard of living while political dissent was suppressed. Special Economic Zones were established to phase in reforms while the commune system was dismantled and failing state-owned enterprises continued to be subsidized.
• In the 1990s Deng's push for market-oriented reforms received official sanction.
• China remains committed to economic reform and the creation of a socialist market economy.

For more information:

The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer special report on China
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/china/index.html

State Department: Background Note on China
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/18902.htm

PBS Wide Angle: To Have and Have Not
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/china/info.html

PBS Frontline's Teacher Background on China
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/teach/red/back1.html

PBS Commanding Heights: China - Economy http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/lo/countries/cn/cn_economic.html

Part 2: Handout
Give your students the Handout and ask them to complete it. Provide them with computers with Internet access and the Web sites listed below. Students may work in pairs or small groups while conducting Internet research but should complete their handouts individually. Alternatively, you may provide printouts from the Web sites or assign Internet research as homework, as appropriate.

State Department: Background Note on China
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/18902.htm

OECD Country Profile: U.S. http://stats.oecd.org/wbos/viewhtml.aspx?QueryName=29&QueryType=View&Lang=en

Econlink: GDP
http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/print.cfm?lesson=EM514

U.S. Census Bureau
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en

CIA World Factbook
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ch.html#Econ

U.N. Statistics on China
http://www.unescap.org/stat/data/apif/china_apif2004.pdf

World Bank statistics:
http://www.worldbank.org/data/countrydata/countrydata.html

Part 3: Discussion
After your students have completed their handouts, ask them what they can conclude. Discuss the similarities and differences they found between these two economies. What can they deduct about how and why the daily lives of American and Chinese people differ? How can they account for the fact that so many Chinese remain poor while the Chinese economy is so large and is growing so rapidly? What share of the world's wealth does each country have, for example?

4. Homework/Extension Activity
You may wish to have your students find out more about the daily lives of the Chinese people and how their lives are improving as the Chinese economy grows. Ask them to locate more relevant facts such as the following: life expectancy, infant mortality, health coverage, literacy, and access to clean water. They may then compare these statistics to those for the U.S. and perhaps other countries as well. What surprised them as they researched these facts? What can they find out about the kinds of jobs the Chinese have access to and about how life differs in the rural and urban areas of China? What impact are economic changes likely to have on the Chinese? On the world? Have students write about, present, and/or discuss their findings.

Correlation to National Standards
McRel Compendium of K-12 Standards Addressed:

Economics Standard 9: Understands how Gross Domestic Product and inflation and deflation provide indications of the state of the economy

Benchmark 5: Understands that economic growth can alleviate poverty, raise standards of living, create new employment and profit opportunities in some industries, but can also reduce opportunities in other industries

Civics Standard 23: Understands the impact of significant political and nonpolitical developments on the United States and other nations

Benchmark 7: Understands the principal effects that economic conditions, technological developments, and cultural developments in other nations have had on American society and the lives of American citizens (e.g., economic conditions such as multinational corporations, migration of labor; technological developments such as fax machines, personal computers, television; cultural developments such as religious movements, resurgence of ethnic consciousness)

World History Standard 44: Understands the search for community, stability, and peace in an interdependent world

Benchmark 13: Understands how global political change has altered the world economy (e.g., what participation in the world economy can mean for different countries; the relationship between demands for democratic reform and the trend toward privatization and economic liberalization in developing economies and former communist states, and how multilateral aid organizations and multinational corporations have supported or challenged these trends)

World History Standard 45: Understands major global trends since World War II

Benchmark 2: Understands causes of economic imbalances and social inequalities among the world's peoples and efforts made to close these gaps

National Council for the Social Studies Thematic Strands (http://www.socialstudies.org/standards/):

Time, Continuity, and Change
People, Places, and Environment
Power, Authority, and Governance
Production, Distribution, and Consumption
Global Connections

About the Author: Lara Maupin is a former social studies teacher and student government adviser at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia. She has a Master’s Degree in Secondary Social Studies Education from George Washington University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology and Philosophy from Mount Holyoke College.

To find out more about opportunities to contribute to this site, contact Leah Clapman at extra@newshour.org.