tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31886581.post4725216323893865399..comments2024-02-11T13:28:46.262+00:00Comments on In Place of Fear: Is trade with China benefiting the majority of Chinese people?calgacushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18253675072578015749noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31886581.post-12016764039398867272010-03-30T12:10:00.212+01:002010-03-30T12:10:00.212+01:00sorry, about the sloppy editing job: had to cut do...sorry, about the sloppy editing job: had to cut down on what i originally wrote and it would appear that i forgot to cross my "tees" and dot my "eyes"seamus macnielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02087785547751507958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31886581.post-7721945817257287172010-03-30T12:05:30.259+01:002010-03-30T12:05:30.259+01:00Another good, comprehensive, post.
From December ...Another good, comprehensive, post. <br />From December 2006 until September 2008 I worked in China and in that time saw most of the country. It leads me to drawing an analogy; many Chinese will tell you that when Mao was in power for the first time in their history the Chinese did not go hungry, while also not quite true, that would nevertheless have to be tempered by the fact that up to 100 million people died during the 'Cultural Revolution' from 1966 to 1976. Similarly, today more Chinese are probably "better off" than they were at any other time in their history and that despite a number of the things which you mentioned.<br />Migrant workers in the cities have no residence permit and are second class citizens in their own country, wages in the factories in the mushrooming cities are improving but not so that it stops workers deciding that it is better to return to their village and try to get by rather than survive on 1,000 rmb (about 100€) that they are earning, sometimes working under deplorable condtions. The entrepreneurial spirit you mention in your post is in abundance but it is not representative for what is happening. No,cheap production is moving away to the poorer provinces and to other countries. In a sense China is going through a process not too unlike the one that the Europeans went through in the 19th and 20th centuries.<br />Pollution is a problem but it is not being ignored. Moreover, while there are parallels with Britain and elsewhere in the 19th centuryand the move from the countryside to the city, the scale of this process in China is mind-bending. At the end of the Yangzte trip.<br />Finally,Centralism and not a lack of "western democracy" is the very real problem in China. This is what stifles a lot of what is going on and a lot of what is going on would really make all of us question our "China Bild". <br />The corruption in Sichuan that led to the schools collapsing more readily than they should have has seen lawyers for the first time in Chinese history actually take government officials to court and even when the party told Xinhau (the state news agency) to stop reporting, they didn't. Of course, Xinhau itself is the party and they are only going to go so far. Human rights activists are having some success and it is not all as clear cut as the western media would like us to believe.<br />Your post has brought up so many interesting points that it has led to my revisiting China and trying to bundle my thoughts on it together. However, it should be emphasised that the country remains to some extent an enigma; a country where you can live a western lifestyle in Shanghai's "Zhongshan Park" or French Quarter, supping your cafe in Costas and watching the new Chinese middle classes on their wireless laptops and a country where you can see poverty of the sort, and sometimes you wouldn't have to leave Shanghai to see it, that you would see in the slums of Calcutta.<br />Another point worth making is that the "party" has up to 100 million members, it is to be expected that in a country where "guanxi"(networking, connections) is everything, you might expect many of those to be the students we see at universities in the UK and elsewhere. Having worked with these kids for seven years, I would have to say they are good kids for the most part and they too are the party. Therefore, finally, while China is an enigma it is too important an enigma for this not to offer all of us, and not only the Chinese themselves more than a modicum of hope. Although, I am already tempted to temper that hope with a dollup of pessimism. As long as all the major decisions are made in Beijing we will have major problems for all sorts of reasons and, unfortunately, even among the more progressive, liberal, inhabitants of what is after all, "the middle kingdom", a real devolving of powers away from the centre is not on the agenda.seamus macnielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02087785547751507958noreply@blogger.com