Comments on: How misunderstood is China?

By: tennessee euler

tennessee euler — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 14:51:25 +0000

If only Augusto Pinochet had had theories like the “ship on the ocean” or the teachings of Kong-Zi in his day. Wouldn’t it have been great to claim that no non-Chilean could understand Chile?

By: justrecently

justrecently — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 08:45:09 +0000

Thanks for the link, Richard! I’m neither giving the CCP, nor the British colonial administration in Hong Kong, too much credit for the economic achievements in either place – just to avoid useless tussles with boneheaded nationalists.

But I disagree with you when it comes to the CCP. There aren’t many CCPs, there are only many different members. But they are all members of the same secret society, and what binds within this society is, in my view, not different from any other. It’s no coincidence that the CCP fears (or feared) Falun Gong more than all civil-rights activists combined. They may differ, even in public (Guangdong’s government took an approach very different from Chongqing’s, for example), there are also many different networks (which tend to cripple innovation, because every move may pull a previously-unknown string within those networks), but all these members are bound to the same “party constitution”, the same oath, the same discipline, and they are all sentenced to succeed, so as not to fall from power.

There are many different aspects to China, and to the lives of its people. But I tend to believe that there aren’t even two sides of a coin when it comes to the CCP.

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 03:18:48 +0000

Mike, please remember Tick-Tock’s track record here. Literally everything he says is wrong, almost without fail.

By: Mike Goldthorpe

Mike Goldthorpe — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 00:19:39 +0000

“Then why is India in such a miserable state? Why is Russia in such a tragic state? Why is Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, in such miserable states? What about Indonesia? What about most of Africa?”

Are you sure they are in such “miserable” state? a lot of Africa (it is a continent, not a country, btw) are not miserable but actually doing OK. Russia is seemingly doing alright, bar some czarist delusions by Putin and corruption (but hey, that’s the same in China too). As it is, people in China are making money the same way there as people are making money in Russia – http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/business/global/family-of-wen-jiabao-holds-a-hidden-fortune-in-china.html?ref=global-home . India is the I in BRICS – it’s up and coming. Maybe not in the same way as China would love the world to see itself doing, but getting there too.

By: Mike Goldthorpe

Mike Goldthorpe — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 00:15:14 +0000

“The Chinese Communist Party has lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese people out of poverty”
This is one of those lines trotted out as if it is taught at school by rote. While I don’t disagree with the CCP for their self congratulation, I have a suspicion they may have made the job of lifting people out of poverty a bit easier y putting these people into poverty in the first place.

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 23:56:11 +0000

The main “other factor” is that the Chinese are , have been and always will be the most industrious, capitalistic people on the planet. Once they were give an inch by the government they grabbed a mile. It wasn’t engineered — Deng saw what they were doing in places like Wenzhou and let them go at it without government hindrance. Imagine where China would be had Mao done the same thing instead of wrapping the country in a cocoon.

I also said, if you read carefully, that I do give the government credit for creating the environment for the economic miracle, as well as for providing opportunities to help many poor people to transcend their poverty.

By: The Clock

The Clock — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 23:04:28 +0000

I’ve always been skeptical about the CCP “lifting” all those people from poverty, and think the more accurate description is that they got out of its people way so they could lift themselves from poverty. The CCP does deserve credit for this, and the decision to allow and then to encourage private enterprise was a turning point for China and paved the way for the greatest economic miracle the world has ever witnessed.

If it’s so easy to create a miracle from the gov’t simply ‘getting out of the way’ and doing nothing. Then why is India in such a miserable state? Why is Russia in such a tragic state? Why is Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, in such miserable states? What about Indonesia? What about most of Africa?

Why did this miracle happen exactly in China? I cannot help but think there are other factors at play besides govt ‘getting out of the way’. What other factors? Chinese people are simply smarter and more hardworking than other races ?