facts on China - part 1

In so many ways China is a medieval country. A medieval country with broadband...

Until the mid-nineties all the land in China was owned by the 'People', and then suddenly it wasn't. One day the people woke up and the land their family had farmed for generations was owned by someone else. Some one they didn't know. And that someone usually wanted the people out. Because there were factories to be built and fancy homes for the people that could pay. And in the end the new rich would be getting their mansions. The local politicians would get their cut. And the farmers would just get shafted...

The great China 'gold rush' had started. The economic miracle.

A few fortunate people had discovered that there was a lot of money to make in China. A lot of money. So a few million or so are or will be leaving poverty behind. But at the same time, most people in China will never rise above poverty.

The principal reason the economy keeps growing is because us foreigners want to invest in China. No Western CEO wants to go down as the man who missed China... But how can it be an economic miracle when five hundred million Chinese are living on less than a dollar a day? By the middle of the century China will have a bigger economy than the US. And you know what? They will still have five hundred million people getting on by a dollar a day. It stinks...

The Chinese deserve an affluence that's worth having - clean water and air you can breathe, not empty skyscrapers; rule of law, not back-handers; uncensored news, not broadband porn... They need education, democracy, a free press - not propaganda and Prada bags and traffic jams full of local-made Audis.