Comparative Paper Example in China and Canada

Country 1: China

China is the third largest country in the world and is located in South Asia along the coastline of the Pacific Ocean. It has an area of approximately 9.6 million square kilometers with a coastline as long as 18,000 kilometers (Lee, Xu, & Syed, 2013). The country is bordered by 14 countries including Russia, Bhutan, Korea, Tajikistan, Laos, Burma, Nepal, Vietnam, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakstan, India, as well as Mongolia. The country's vast land consists of plains, plateaus, foothills, basins, and mountains (Lee, Xu, & Syed, 2013). China is divided into four regions the North, Northwest, South, and the Qinghai-Tibetan areas. The geographical differences between the areas, residents have distinctive lives and varying customs. China has numerous lakes as well as rivers, and approximately 50,000 rivers have a drainage area covering more than 100 square kilometers (Lee, Xu, & Syed, 2013). Yangtze River is the third-longest in China as well as in the world. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Middle-Lower Yangtze plain cover the most extensive area with lakes.

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Many lakes based in the northwest are natural and salty, including the largest Qinghai Lake. As at 2019 population, China had approximately 1.42 billion people a figure that places them as the world's largest country (Liang, 2018). The country has an approximated 145 people per square kilometers population density and has the most populated cities in the world rivaling India as the only competition. Hong Kong ranked the eighth in the world's most populated cities with 68,400 people per square mile. Macau is close at 9th with a population density of 65,400 people per square mile (Liang, 2018). Despite this high population in Macus, it ranks among the top sovereign states with dependent territories with the second highest life expectancy in the world. The World Bank classifies China among the upper-middle-income countries and its consistent growth over the decades has improved the lives of millions taking them from the poverty level. China's population growth has been a political problem as the leadership strives to control to manage it and hence boost economic stability.

China is the only country led via the communist party system among the G-20 grouping of the major economies. Following a long civil war in the country, China has proclaimed a People's Republic in the year 1949 (Goodman, 2015). The Communist Party in China dominates both the society as well as the state at large in the country. The party is committed to maintaining a permanent monopoly in the country. The communist party (CCP) transformed the economic, political as well as the social system of the country via the emphasis of socialist egalitarianism. This was done along with a nationalistic drive in a bid to forge toward modernization. The Chinese constitution promulgated in 1982 stipulates that power resides in the 2,979 members of the National People's Congress (NPC). The small circle of the CCP makes the critical decisions in the country selected standing committee of the Politburo, where power lies (Goodman, 2015). The members of the NPC meet annually to elect a majority of senior government officials inclusive of the president, vice president, premier as well as the vice premier. The top executive organ of the government is the State Council, which acts similarly as the cabinet in other countries. The senior members of the State Council held significant influence in the party depending with their respective positions.

Chinese economic prowess is among the best as it has seen the development of the country's economy to the global level and power to be feared. Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC) which was founded by Mao Zedong in 1949, the economic transformation of the country was painful but fruitful (Bergsten, 2009). The government centrally plans the Chinese economy as it grows responsively to the planning at a significant rate of 10% annually for the past couple of decades (Bergsten, 2009). The Chinese economic growth rate is affected by persistent debts as a result of infrastructural development. The Chinese commercial growth rate is crumbling since the country cannot add more debts to the already existing. The economic growth rate has witnessed a significant drop to 6.5 % as investors panic for the fears of an increased drop in economic growth (Bergsten, 2009). To combat this challenge, the government can resort to borrowing from its population, including private banks as well as national security bonds. The United States' consumption of the Chinese products to an estimate of an overall a third of Chinese exports has fueled its economic growth.

Country 2: Canada

Canada is a country in the North American continent bordering the United States. It occupies the top half of the continent covering approximately 41% of the continent's area (Berdahl, & Gibbins, 2014). Canada has a population of 35,151,728 as of May 10, 2016, which is three times growth compared to 1940s, where they had a population of about 11 million (Berdahl, & Gibbins, 2014). The country's growth rate is fueled by immigration, placing them as the most significant human capital importers in the globe. Considering the large geographical area in Canada, its population is projected to increase in the future, and when combined with its unrivaled natural resources, it could compete for the globe's superpower country. Majority of the Canadian population live in two provinces, including Quebec and Ontario. A huge population is located in Quebec where a quarter of Canadians reside in the province, and about one in three Canadians lives in Ontario.

The largest city in the country by population is Toronto hosting about 2,615,060 people as at the 2011 census and 2,731,571 as at 2016 (Berdahl, & Gibbins, 2014). The second largest city in Canada is Montreal (1,704,694 people) followed in the third place by Calgary (1,239,220 population) which is growing at a double rate of the Canadian average. This is an indication that Calgary will likely overcome the Montreal population in the near future. The official languages in Canada include English and French, with about 56% of Canadians reporting English as their first language as of 2016 (Berdahl, & Gibbins, 2014). About 20% of the Canadian population reported using French as their first language. These dynamics is despite the presence of 11 aboriginal languages in the country with only a few spoken by enough people which ensure their safety from extinction (Bramadat, 2009). Approximately 2.8 million of the Canada population lives outside the country, which is equivalent to 9% of the country's overall population (Berdahl, & Gibbins, 2014). The country has a climate varying from temperature in the west coast of British Colombia to a climate in the north characterized as subarctic.

The Canadian political parties have been in existence since its confederation despite the lack of recognition on the ballots until the 1970s (Bezanson, & Luxton, 2006). The registration of political parties with elections began in 1974 in Canada, and the significance of registration was mainly to appear on the ballot underneath the nominated candidates. After the confederation, Canada's political system was made of a two-party system after which it developed further to a multi-party democracy. By the year 2015, during the federal election, there were 23 registered political parties in the country (Bezanson, & Luxton, 2006). The multi-party system is replicated at the provincial level, which reflects the country's national politics. This is despite the similarity of some party names at both levels, which lack a good integration system. Most provincial parties are autonomous except for Parti Liberal du Quebec which is independent. There exists a significant overlap of supporters within parties sharing a common name at both the national and provincial level despite the lack of formal ties.

The Canadian Conservative party had dominated the countries politics until 1896 except the period Macdonald's government was thrown out of power. Macdonald authorized the hanging of Louis Riel, the Metis leader in 1885, which weakened the wings of the Conservative Party, which consisted of Ontario and Quebec cities (Bezanson, & Luxton, 2006). During the First World War, the Conservative alienated the French Catholic voters by its implementation of the conscription. The inability of the Conservative party to win the support of the Quebec population incapacitated the party to compete at the national level between the periods of 1921 to 1957 (Bezanson, & Luxton, 2006). John Diefenbaker led the party to a minority government in 1957 and a landslide victory in 1958 (Bezanson, & Luxton, 2006). As a result, Diefenbaker won a significant amount of support in Quebec City. He was unable to manage the coalition leading to the liberals taking the running of government in 1963.

Canada's economy is based on trade making it an open economy. This makes trade wars a critical aspect that affects the economy. Among Canada's export destinations includes the two largest economies made of China and the United States (Fedorak, 2014). The tit for tat tariffs which are tipped to boost prices of major consumer markets significantly. This keeps the outlook of the export economy at risk. Canada exports about 3 % of its commodities to the United Kingdom, making it its third export market (Berdahl, & Gibbins, 2014). The U.K.s economy that has been struck by the occurrence of the Brexit will affect its major trading partners, which include Canada among other countries in Europe. Canada's economy witnessed an increase in its growth in 2017 due to the increased trends in consumer spending. At the time, real estate markets lowered their interest rates, helping the development of the housing sector as many households could afford the financing (Berdahl, & Gibbins, 2014. This motivated many families to take debts in a bid to invest in the housing sector hence restraining consumer spending. The implementation of government policies, including tighter mortgage rules as well as foreign buyers' taxes, has led to a positive impact on the country's economy. This development has led to controlled rates of home price appreciation, making it affordable to Canadian citizens.

Analysis

China is divided into 23 provincial administrative regions at the lower level below the national leadership. The provinces are further divided into municipal People's Congresses. Before the sixteenth Communist Party Congress was held in the year 2002, all three powerful individuals resigned their positions in the country (Goodman, 2015). The three leaders in the country at the time included Li Peng (chairman of the NPC Standing Committee), and Zhu Rongji who acted as the premier. Jiang Zemin was the president, the chairman of Central Military Affairs Commissions as well as the general secretary of the Communist Party. However, Jiang Zemin was expected to remain as the head of the military despite his resignation as the president and secretary general of the Communist Party. There have been open calls for democracy in the country, even as the Communist Party insists on its way of leadership. This is demonstrated by Professor Zheng Yefu of the Peking University in China when he made a daring call to the communist party to step down after the New Year's Day (Goodman, 2015). The professor's call echoed an earlier petition by the influential Chinese intellectuals who demanded to have democracy as the new political dispensation.

The Chinese exports to the US were boosted by the implementation of the loose interest rate in the United States, which increased the money floating around in its economy. After a...