If the US wants to meet China's challenge, it must recognize the real strengths of the equitable system Xi has put in place
A very good article that does get a little critical at the end about the lack of free press in China. The article really catches my sentient. The only thing is, can China’s modernisation be achieved without putting anymore CO2 into the atmosphere, although China does seem more committed to research in renewables than the West is? We've just got to hope they pull it off.
[Xi] has announced that extreme poverty was ultimately defeated. He has promised pensions and a free health care system covering everybody in 15 years. Both are unprecedented feats in Chinese history. One can poke holes in these claims, but the overall improvement of life for all Chinese is evident.
Xi also acted against and broke up large internet monopolies, opening the field to new competition—something that the US has been reluctant to do. It closed gray areas that allowed Chinese companies to list on the New York Stock Exchange by revealing all details of their Chinese operations, some of which are sensitive.
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He’s also against ideological worship of Western “fake freedom,” which cheats all common people of their real interests and grants freedom only to large companies that sway the state and public opinion for their private interests. From this perspective, the miserable lives of poor people in the US is a testament to the Western capitalists’ brainwashing.
Looking at things through a different lens, the rich and high-tech companies may believe now that they can’t trust the Chinese government after its corporate crackdown. The rich have an objective interest in a democracy that safeguards their interests from any possible bullying of the state. But if democracy doesn’t take care of the poor people, they have only dictatorships to rely upon.
Democracy without care for common people withers and dies. There is no grooming of new talents, no social turnover and the existing capitalists turn into medieval lords.
Asia Times
Modernization requires energy and CO2 emissions.
ReplyDeleteIn the longer term, perhaps not.
China has to clean up its air pollution, which is considerably more lethal than CO2.