Political Systems Between China And Canada

Canada and China have distinct economic and political systems that shape their respective societies in different ways. These systems dictate the level of government involvement, the freedom of enterprise and diversity of opinions in the country, so they have a substantial effect on areas such as education, wealth distribution, and the governments’ approach to resolve current issues.
China operates under a communist political system with a mixed economy that leans towards a command economy. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) holds complete control over the political system in China, and other political parties are denied. The CCP owns and controls production and resource allocation, while allowing a certain amount of corporate freedom and private

The Chinese economy is heavily state-controlled, with the government playing a major role in directing investment and sometimes controlling corporate giants. Starting in 2008, China enacted its Anti-Monopoly Law, which provides a guideline for regulating dominant firms and preventing anti-competitive behaviour (Huld, 2022). Ironically, the inequality has been further fueled by state-owned enterprises and state-controlled corporations. As a result, in the recent decade, the top 1% of households in China control nearly one-third of the country's wealth, while the bottom 25% of households hold just 1% of the wealth (Xie & Jin, 2015). This does not fit with the broad definition of a command economy, where most resources are publicly owned and people have more equal income. In Canada, the wealth distribution is more balanced, where they have a larger middle class and a smaller number of people in poverty. Statistics Canada reports that in 2016, the wealthiest 20% of families in Canada possessed 63.7% of the country's total net worth, while the least wealthy 20% of families held just 1.1% (Statistics Canada, 2022). The Gini Coefficient is a measure of income inequality in a region, ranging from 0 to 1, with 1 representing a complete inequality. China’s Gini Coefficient has fluctuated around 0.38 in recent years (The World Bank, 2018), and Canada has a value

Due to the variance between economic systems, the Chinese and Canadian governments play different roles and take different methods to cope with it. The centrally planned economy in China allows the government to play an active role in managing the economy and have more control over the supply chain. Therefore, they can take coordinated action more quickly according to the ever-changing situations. On the other hand, Canada’s economy is more market-driven. They let the “invisible hand” naturally regulate the market, and it may respond to the current situation more slowly since it is a natural process without human intervention. But the Canadian government still takes action when it is needed. For instance, they increased the diversification of sub-products to hedge against damage from supply chain issues (Boileau & Sydor, 2021). In short, countries that have mixed economies but with different tendencies to command or market economies have different levels of government intervention when facing a