Guangdong business owners worried about succession

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Summary:

The owners of many private businesses are getting close to retirement and there is no one to fill their shoes. Their children don't necessarily want to be part of the business world and so they stray from it. In fact, 40.2% of private company owners in Guangdong sent their children abroad for school. By comparison, only 12.6% of private companies in Guangdong have been taken over by the owner's children. Additional statistics say that 51% of private business owners are afraid their children don't want to carry on the family business and 62% fear their children wouldn't be able to carry it on even if they tried. More than 800,000 private businesses exist but these were largely started in the 1970s and early 1980s so many of these people are now nearing retirement. The new generation doesn't want to have to handle the stress of business circles and this may stem from the fact that many in the new generation have attended college abroad. This schooling began even early for some, as far back as elementary school. There is a sliver of hope though as 13.4% the new generation born under the first generation of private business owners have started their own companies.

Significance:

This is a blow to privatization but it may also be good because the newer generation is bringing western ideas over. The west largely embraces capitalism so children that received their education in foreign lands will likely bring these ideals over to China. This also contributes to globalization a great deal as the new generation will have knowledge of the world far beyond what communist China allows in its schools. In the future this can only lead to becoming more connected with the rest of the world. So although some older businesses may go out of business, this does not mean that the idea of capitalism will end in China. What's more is that we can't expect China to become fully capitalist overnight, and if they did their economy would likely collapse because people would start demanding higher wages. These things need to happen gradually and the opening up policy that was started in the 1970s, combined with this new development, is clear cut evidence of that. Just the fact that there's any private businesses in a communist country is cause for celebration. Britain has one of the freest political systems in the world as a result of gradualism and now China must strive to the become the strongest economy in the world by means of the same process.