China out to dominate the world economy in the 21st century.

I recently came across a documentary by the name Win in China – The Movie that is an eye-opening take on the most populace country on earth and the massive economic engine its Communist leadership has created.

The documentary directed by Robert A. Compton, the Executive Producer of the Two Million Minutes series on global education describes how in the 30 years since Mao’s death, China has evolved from deep poverty to the second largest economy in the world - quietly lifting 400 million people out of abject poverty, becoming America’s largest creditor, amassing a $2 trillion foreign currency reserve and aggressively acquiring access to raw materials around the globe.

The achievement is unprecedented both in its scope and in its relative silence. Chinese leaders seem to have figured out earlier than their Indian counterparts that the only way to absorb new workers entering the economy in the decades ahead was to turn China into the most entrepreneurial country on Earth.

And yes it has paid off with China set to overtake India in the race to become the second most influential country in the 21st century after America.

Today as the most entrepreneurially active country on the planet, China is said to have 112 million people engaged in planning, starting or building new ventures according to the Babson University and London School’s Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.

The creation and growth of China’s entrepreneurial sector has been deliberate and well- funded by the Central Government. Since 2000, nearly every major Chinese university has added a full faculty of entrepreneurship professors, on-campus incubators and nearby research parks.

According to the makers of the documentary, global venture capital firms have poured into the major cities and loose networks of angel investors have sprouted around the country. In the Zhongguancun technology park, a new company is said to be formed every 4.6 days.

Unleashing the entrepreneurial energy latent in the Chinese population has become increasingly important to China’s leaders and increasingly threatening to businesses worldwide.

The Win In China documentary uses the world’s largest and most lucrative business-plan competition – broadcast on CCTV called Win in China– as the metaphor to explore the radical cultural changes taking place in China and the surge of Chinese entrepreneurs, to consider the implications for the rest of the world.

In the aforementioned TV show 120,000 entrepreneurs compete for prize money in excess of $5 million with the winner receiving nearly $1.5 million dollars to invest in their new business plan. Win in China is more than a lucrative business plan competition – it is an opportunity for the government to educate, motivate and inspire the latent entrepreneurial talent in the most populous nation on earth.

The documentary by Robert Compton is compellingly narrated by Atlantic Monthly reporter and author James Fallows and by China expert Orville Schell, the Arthur Ross Director, Center on U.S.-China Relations, Asia Society.

The documentary shows Chinese capitalism in its rawest form. Beneath the game show’s surface lies a nuanced, subtle view of Chinese business practices, ambitions, ethical norms and competitive behaviors.

All said and done, it is high time the Indian leadership took note of the rising dragon and flexed their muscles to take it head on…!