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Yes, it's quite shocking to see that many who visit this forum have such an outdated and inaccurate view of China today. Many still think of Red Guards waving the red book and everything is controlled by a dictatorship.

The reality is that aside from elections, most of daily life in China today is little different from most capitalist countries. China is opening up and changing rapidly. However, some ostriches have their head in the sand thinking that China's still in the cultural revolution.

 

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The view from my apartment:

What city do you live in?

 

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I'm not surprised by any of this although it still amazes me to see how fast things are changing. As a Brit I do have a couple of questions though.

Is a more democratic China likely to emerge within the next 10 years?

Do people in China appreciate just how the industrialisation of China is going to cause the world massive environmental challenges?

P.S on the last question I'm not argueing against China's right to industrialise, I guess I'm just saying that in places like Britain there is a growing realisation that if we were to reduce our carbon emission to 0 then China's booming economy would replace all our Carbon outputs within a year. So in a sense we feel almost helpless in Britain on the enviroment...

If by democracy, you mean direct mass elections for the highest office of the land. I don't think China will get there in ten years. Neither do I think that's necessarily in the best interest for China at this stage of development. Democracy is a system of institutions which work best when there is a strong foundation of widespread high educational attainment, rule of law and a large middle class that have a stake in the system. China is certainly getting there, but not yet.

However, I think China will be much freer in ten years as personal freedoms and political freedoms continue to grow. China is a very different country from ten years ago and I believe it will be even more different in ten years. China's society is opening to the world and modernizing at such a fast pace, it's hard to keep up with all the changes.

About the environment. I believe that the Chinese central government realize that this is a major problem. Certainly, China's environment has been strongly hurt by the industrialization. I think it is imperative that China learn from the mistakes of developed nations and try to find ways of promoting green energy and reducing pollution. The central government has been focusing on this issue, but the problem is so massive that I think the results are quite limited. China has a severe pollution problem and I dont think it will go away anytime soon.

 

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^^^^ Something to keep in mind when talking about China is to remember how vast the country is. Many in China themselves don't know what's really going on in the other parts of the country.

China is full of contradictions, because it is so big. So it's always hard to generalize. When you hear somebody making simplistic generalizations about China/Chinese, then you can immediately tell that person doesn't know what they're talking about.