China's internal troubles (not the Far West)

[FascistLibertarian]

aawww but Confucianism hates merchants because they dont produce anything, and I really doubt the leaders of China will turn their back on merchants in favour of some perfect past society which never in fact existed!

I dont see the Communists giving up power any time soon

[WVO]

I agree that one-party rule in China isn't going away any time soon. Singapore is a likely model, but probably what we'll see is a mix of Singapore, Malaysia, S. Korea, Japan and, ironically, Taiwan.

China is less opaque than we think. It's driven by a desire to increase national wealth (including standard of living) and prestige while maintaining stability. It's doesn't take years of study to figure this out, they've been saying it since Deng Xiaoping took power and still. say it all the time

If you're interested in a theory about political change in China that isn't the "China Will be a World-Dominating Superpower," or "China is our Friend and Just Wants to be Like the United States," check out Suisheng Zhao's, "A Nation-State by Construction: Dynamics of Modern Chinese Nationalism," or any of his stuff on Chinese nationalism. He takes the view that China is, and has been since the late 19th c., driven more by nationalism than any other ideology.

[Firestaller]

I agree that one-party rule in China isn't going away any time soon. Singapore is a likely model, but probably what we'll see is a mix of Singapore, Malaysia, S. Korea, Japan and, ironically, Taiwan.

China is less opaque than we think. It's driven by a desire to increase national wealth (including standard of living) and prestige while maintaining stability.

Yeah, Singapore ... heck, even Japan has been ruled by 1 party since they installed a parliamentary system.

Though, it will take China a while to have that. The Chinese are afraid of foreign meddling/influence in their political affairs if they were to be more politically open ... especially since they have a long road ahead of them.


China is like watching the Industrial Revolution, the Great Deppression and the 1950's (and all the problems that came during those periods) going on at once.

[goesh]

The newspaper I picked up this morning had a small post about this. In central China, police rescued 217 people, including 29 children, who had been forced to work in brick kilns as slaves. The brief article said the internet sparked a national furor when a bunch of fathers started trying to track down their sons who they believed had been sold as slaves. Of all things, the internet..........Here's the MSNBC article on it:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19224794/

"Last week, state media reported the rescue of 31 people, forced to work for a year as slaves at a brickworks run by the son of a local Communist Party official in Shanxi."