China wants to be modernized, be more productive and be a more open and tolerant society. It admires the US on many counts. It is trying to copy the good parts of the US experience without having to take tha bad parts, such as widening income inequality, poverty amidst plenty etc. Some experts in the US are telling China that it cannot be done, that the good comes with the bad. Some people in the US also point to the bad things that market capitalism brought to China, such as poor working conditions and low wages, as evidence that Chinese socialism is evil. They are blaming Chinese socialism for the diseases of capitalism.
The challenge is to make everyone rich, not just a small group rich at the expense of others. This is the policy debate in China. It is not easy task but it does not help to say that there will always be poor people, as Reagan did. Theoretically, if we can go to the moon, we can also defy economic gravity and make everyone rich.
Henry
pms wrote:
> Something Henry posted a few days ago has been haunting me. I think he
> posted about a meeting among top Chinese officials and the bottom line
> they're all looking at is giving the people enough of what they want to
> keep them quiet.
>
> Henry, I think you've been defending Chinese leadership in terms of their
> socialist underpinnings, no?
>
> But really, hasn't the US accomplished what the Chinese want to accomplish,
> in spades.
> And aren't the RCP officials willing to use whatever capitalist-inspired
> actions they think will achieve this living standard?
>
> So how can you be rooting for the Chinese, but critical of US policy? That
> would be unrecognized policy envy.
>
> I was ambivalent about Nixon's opening to China cause I knew a lot of Big
> Cigars had totalitarianism-envy. Ta-da, the worst of both worlds.
>
> Following this line, I guess the only countries that can continence the
> basic freedoms are countries that have managed to get their people enough
> stuff to keep most of them quiet. And confused.
>
> So what am I trying to say here? Don't know, gotta gota K-mart and
> exchange something, and the words of those Chinese officials will continue
> to snag on my brain like a silk stocking.
>
> ***********************
>
> HEY, HEY, HEY, HEY-
>
> Are you guys taking part in a mirror lbo list I don't know about? A world
> where Brad DeLong is constantly posting reactionary ideas in the name of
> justice? I feel hurt. HURT!
>
> Hey anyone remember Code Blue? I''ve only got/heard one album by them and
> I know nothing about them, but I love what I got.
>
> It's gonna hurt.....
>
> pms