How does China look like Today?

14554 Views 22 Replies 8 Participants Last post by edge, Dec 6, 2006

gr8

Discussion Starter · Dec 3, 2006

sorry admin i know i should put this in off topic, but i think alot of people really need to know how China actually looks like TODAY. By TODAY i mean in the recent 10 years and the future. That means nothing to do with the dynasties, nothing to do with the Rape of Nanjing, Nothing to do with Tiananimen.

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mgrovernut

· #21 · Dec 6, 2006 (Edited)

bassfisher said:
China has evry rite to have a technological and industrial revolution. Britain and the usa have already poluted their corners of the world irreperably, don't impose your 'white' values on other peeps.
Since the usa and england are horrible over weight, does that mean starving orietals should diet to? Perhaps this is our revenge for your colonial redistribution of wealth based on race/
Remember the opium wars?

Firstly I'm not white (like I care about colour). Secondly if you actually bothered to read what I wrote then you would note that I said I wasn't arguing against China's right to industrialise. In actual fact I support it's right to do so. My QUESTION was more about whether or not people in China actually appreciate that whilst Industrialisation is a good thing economically for themselves (and others) that the size of China means that the environmental impact will be huge. In Britain we polluted during our own industrialisation but there are 2 points here:

1.) When Britain industrialised no one really thought much about the environment.
2.) We are a tiny country compared to China in terms of Land Space and population.

If China is as laid back as we were in Victorian times then the world will face an enviromental meltdown. Therefore in my view China has to appreciate that building a coal powered station every 10 days (when we in the UK are closing them) isn't helpful. It needs to realise that no country in history has ever industrialised on the scale that China is now doing. So all I'm asking is do the Chinese people appreciate this?

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mgrovernut

· #22 · Dec 6, 2006

edge said:
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.

Thanks for reading what I wrote and responding with the above. My views or guesses about what is going on in China seem to agree with the above. It's quite difficult to know what's going on in China at times and you begin to wonder how much you know about what is really going on. But the above makes sense..

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edge

· #23 · Dec 6, 2006

^^^^ 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.

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