What value does China emphasize when it uses resources?

Answer 1

China, being a communist country does not use profit as the measure of productivity as most Western countries do. What they do use is a somewhat complex and secretive system of "utility". "Utility" is a term which is used much in classic economics, it does not however find much application in the modern capitalist world, sadly. Utility is what capitalist theory promises to maximize; however when looking at the modern capitalist world "utility" is a word requiring parenthesis. There is little of it even though classic economics "proves' that capitalism maximizes utility. Perhaps people got wise and decided to chase to coin and leave the ball behind?

Chinese use "utility" much as classic economic does, the only major difference is the government has a monopoly on "capitol". While Westerner think that capitalism will maximize utility the Chinese have wisely figured out that maximizing utility maximizes utility, they removed the "capitalist" middleman so to speak. There theory differs from western economics in that "the consumer" is not all knowing but instead government is...

What remains though is what you asked, how do they define "utility." To arrive at this figure the Chinese will look through the world and with statistical analysis of goods in other countries; figure what the lowest cost any good can be made by determining which country can make this good at an acceptable quality. This process employees many variables to adjust for any variable in the economic environment.

It is worth noting this process is only used on domestic goods. Export goods are handled much the way they are in the west, profit determines the utility.