China Thinks in Decades While Democracies Think in Election Cycles

The latest article by Dr. A.K. Chaurasia restarts the discussion over whether long-term developmental planning is undermined by the democratic election cycles. The post suggests that five-year tenure in politics usually derails or postpones transformational infrastructure and industrial projects by pointing out the analysis of the massive trade surplus and the growth of manufacturing in China by Navroop Singh. It is a challenge to projects with a ten to twenty year time line of planned implementation as governments keep alternating with each change in government.

This is the opposite of the multi-decade industrial policy of China, as Chaurasia compares the two. Beijing is not election-driven and this gives it the ability to set up capacity in terms of manufacturing, technology and imports much before the world needs them. The structural benefits of this long-range discipline is that China has, as compared to democracies, is compounding the political cycles in ways that are difficult to satisfy.

Trade Surplus of China

According to the analysis by Navroop Singh, China is still flooding global markets with subsidized exports that are in an amount that cannot be matched by any other competitor. The surplus in the goods trade in China, which entered one trillion dollars in 2024, was first confirmed in the reporting of Financial Times, with increasing exports to Southeast Asia, supported by the threat of U.S. tariffs.

The impact of the long continuity of Chinese policies can be seen in industries like toys, steel, machinery, and electronics. Decades of capacity have enabled the Chinese companies to be more competitive in markets where the domestic industries’ policy environment is not always consistent. The toy and steel producers in India, which have been frequently cited as examples, are also not able to keep up with the competition due to the state policies changing every time they change election.

Structural Advantage or Policy Imbalance?

In the post, the author states that the long-term approach adopted by China provides a structural advantage that can not be easily emulated by the democratic systems unless there is the commitment to continuity undertaken by both parties. Numerous democracies have tried long term planning by use of multi-year plans, but the dynamism of elections tends to disrupt the implementation, budgetary planning or political agendas. Also, as the world trade competition heightens, nations that have a stable industrial policy will have an advantage over those that are tied by political changes.

Economists warn that this gap may become even bigger, since China remains investing a lot in high-tech production, EVs, green energy, and semiconductors, with all of that supported by state-sponsored long-term subsidies. Democracies might be forced to re-examine the way they formulate development programs should they wish to match China in terms of industrial perspective that has taken decades.

The point made by Dr. Chaurasia is a sign of the increasing concern: is election-driven governance simply too shortsighted in terms of the contemporary economic environment of the world? The governments related to the five-year cycles are under more pressure to take more stable and strategic planning models as China grows in terms of long-term industrial benefits. Unless there is continuity, the democracies will be left behind in terms of manufacturing, technology, and trade competitiveness.