interesting read about China's mobilization after the quake
 

So you expect us to RTFA? :)

How about a small excerpt we can generalize about and judge without having to think too much?

good point. This will be enough to satisfy some here:

"Communism has been a disaster in China as elsewhere"

The rest will just be noise...

I like pictures from china:

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...r91/china3.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...r91/china2.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...r91/china4.jpg

and why are they failing?

*cough* ummmmmm....Katrina.....?

Ever been there?

They are not failing. They are kicking this country's arse, and their work ethic puts most Americans to shame. Did you read the article? How does $250B tade surplus sound?

"The investigation into this earthquake will be a test. Will officials who built collapsible schools really be jailed? Will future plans be open to advance inspection? In recent years we have seen promises to punish corrupt officials turn into real punishments for their accusers."

I will offer a correction pending the outcome of the above. Lets see if they really turn the corner?

LOL. I was just in Beijing and Hong Kong. Got some news for ya: They're not failing friend. Their economy is on fire.

Remember that national debt thing? Hmmmmmm.....I wonder who on earth has that much money to lend us?

Unfortunately, where they are failing is environmentally and we will all pay the price for that economically and from a health perspective.

It's almost certain that the air visitors and athletes will breath during the olympics will be deathly unsafe.

Economy may be on fire but so are their buildings of which I was referring to.. Look at the construction practices in the pictures..SmileWavy

So true. We are just about to the level of idiocracy and China is just about the opposite. Better sign your kids up for Mandarin classes.

Follow up

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/2054391/China-earthquake-Education-official-speaks-of-school-deaths-shame.html

Lin Qiang, the deputy head of the provincial education bureau, called on his fellow officials to accept responsibility for the collapsed schools, which killed thousands of children and teachers across the province 19 days ago.

In a moving and unusually personal interview in a Chinese newspaper, he announced he would give up his place on the Olympic torch relay as a mark of respect and contrition.

“I have witnessed an appalling tragedy,” he said. “It has had an enormous impact on my soul.”

“From the moment of the earthquake on, I have found I cannot bear the idea of passing the buck for the protection of life.

“With so many young lives taken away, so many families broken, we couldn’t count ourselves human beings, let alone educators, if we didn’t put the value of life before politics and bureaucracy, if we officials still tried to avoid responsibility and protect ourselves.”

Mr Lin described how he had been forced – the day after the quake – to look the tragedy square on when he visited Beichuan middle school, where more than 1,300 children and teachers died. There, he met a woman who had just watched her son die while waiting to be rescued.

He laid the blame squarely on corruption: not far away was a charity school whose backers had personally overseen its construction to ensure standards were maintained and money not siphoned off.

“It’s morally lazy to blame nature for human tragedies. The child could have survived. The school building could have stood upright.”

The only Americans who know anything about China today are those who have been there.
The American media is a bad source for information about China.

Not sure what you mean. That is a British news source.

I've been to China 4x. Rick has traveled there extensively as have others. My guess is that the highly negative posters have never set foot in the country.

I just came back from a couple of days in China. First time after the quake. The entire country is directing its focus on first helping the victims everything else is secondary. Good will come out of this.

I find it distasteful that there are those on this board that would use this human tragedy as a platform for their misinformed xenophobic bs. If you are not willing to do anything to help, at least try not to do any harm.

I've never met any westerner who's traveled to China and not come back a changed person, absolutely loving that country. It's a very different place and anyone who calls themself a world traveler, but hasn't yet made it to China, simply can't imagine what it's like. Obviously, western journalists are not real loved in China and, unless they're there totally undercover, are not gonna get to see things most travelers would see. Though I am not a journalist, my company's news-sounding name got me a good going over by their embassy folks when I went for my first visa. I would say covering China has to be an inherent conflict of interest in itself for any western journalist. You simply can't be in that profession and remain unbiased in a country with a state-controlled media, where you have a lot of restrictions on what you can say or whom you can talk with. Sure am glad I'm not a journalist.

I was wondering if they will shut down the factories for a few weeks to put on a happy face? Pollution what pollution?

Hey we can still beat their economy... it is not too late!

Who here wants to sigh up for eighty hour work week in a factory or construction site with no over time pay and no ear/eye protection?

I've heard they will restrict private car travel in Beijing to even and odd license plate digits every other day. Still, they'll have a long way to go to clean up the air in Beijing. I wouldn't want to be running that marathon in August.

You realize, of course, that you could take the entire population of the United States out of China and not put a dent in their labor force. With numbers like that, don't expect wages and conditions to be anything like western standards anytime soon.

That is an interesting read. Thanks for posting. Others here can throw all of the tired anti-Commie arguments but China is amazing & mutating before our eyes. This is no longer the China that quashed Tiananmen. They have gone from communes & bicycles to cars & condos in 10 years.

"I read one genuine answer to this conundrum in a fascinating article in the China Economic Quarterly. It made the point that what communism has been unable to replace - and has, in fact, built upon - is a long tradition that is neither western-style democracy nor inspired by the Soviet Union. That is, it has created a political system that is based on the paternalistic mobilisation of an entrenched bureaucracy."

And re: pollution

China & India are in the midst of their Industrial Revolution & some relatively short term - but big scale - environmental problems will occur. The west had 200 years before we started to get our environmental act together. And it could be argued that we're still a long way from where we will have to be. I think that we will see them move a bit faster.

Ian

How many children are you allowed to have in China?

Yeah, clearly we have it all wrong here...

But yeah, sure, let the light of capitalism in, it can only help. Cause if they've gone far, they still have far to go.

Totalitarian rule is real good for speeding processes.

I hear they're rescinding the one child policy for familes who lost a kid in the quake. BTW, how would you suggest population control for a place with 5x our population, way less arable land and plenty of history of famine?

Yes, they are politically totalitarian. Nasty, nasty country. We will see where they are in 20 years.

And yes, the pollution is very real. I was in a town near the Shijiazhuang airport where 1/2 the people on the street wore facemasks. The air was gray. It was a very depressing place. The restaurant was good though - very dirty, but good.

Ian

China is actively pursuing "green" development of new cities. They are compressing an incredible amount of economic development into a short timespan. It is rather unprecedented. Of course if one blindly hates "communism" then it all just looks like one big red mess.

I think it is amazing to watch, and if circumstances were different I would move there for a few years to be in the thick of it. Yes, there are certainly issues. I know my emails were being monitored when I was there (we were guests of the Ministry of Education for two of the trips), and the growing pains of the country are evident. But the heart and soul of the people is stunning.

With draconian governmental policies, of course!

I repeat, it is distasteful to use this human tragedy to spout xenophobic ideas. If you have nothing positive or constructive to add, just shut up.

No can do jabu.

No one here has taken any jabs at the quake victims, so don't get your panties all in a bunch.