A noted scholar says the United States should adopt China's practice of long-term planning to maintain its position as the world's leading economy.

Ann Lee, author of the book “What the U.S. Can Learn from China,” tells VOA American political and business leaders have become “too enamored with short-term results and short-term solutions.”

“We need to learn to step back and think about where we want to be, strategically, long-term. There is not enough of that thinking going on. The Chinese are able to resist this temptation just to deal with short-term problems with short-term band aids .”

Lee says Beijing transformed itself into an economic powerhouse by adopting long-range plans of five years or longer. She says the plans come with performance targets, so that officials responsible for carrying them out are held accountable.

Lee says while U.S. political leaders argue over whether government is too big or too small, China is more concerned about whether its government is effective.

“The Chinese work out their differences. They also debate very fiercely about the issues. But at least, a lot of their debates are grounded in a lot of results. While we can debate whether we want big government or less government, what we really need is effective government and having objectives and results to the various policies that we decide to implement.”

She says she is well aware of China's shortcomings, particularly in the area of human rights. But Lee says Americans should not not overemphasize their differences with China, but rather focus on what they can learn from a nation that has grown rapidly from poverty to world power.