Say nice things about China

mikhail wrote: »

They have an admirable culture of taking care of their elderly to a degree we don't (not that we're terrible, mind). Of course, this is partly because their healthcare system doesn't encourage long term care, but it's also rooted in their culture going back at least to Confucius.

People have already made a few jokes above about takeaway food here, but their real food culture is fascinating and rich. Like us, they have a cultural memory of harsh famine, but where it's left us with one of the more impoverished food cultures around (stew and coddle don't add up to much) they have a huge variety of dishes that make a lot of flavour out of very little meat. Given the world's growing appetite for meat and the relatively inefficient land use that amounts to, there's a lesson there for the future.

They are determined not to be at the mercy of foreign powers again after the humiliations of colonialism in the 19th and early 20th century. They replicate essential industries at home rather than create a dependency on imports. It seems like a better long term strategy than the western approach of sending all their manufacturing abroad, pretending that the pollution and labour conditions used to make our goods doesn't count because it's far away.

They build on an enormous scale that seems impossible in a less controlled economy. The Yangtze river dam may have its faults, but it's an incredible feat of engineering that provides power and water security.

They've uplifted an enormous population out of poverty in just a few decades. They were dirt poor in the 70s, but the switch from a communist to a fascist system has resulted something like the population of the USA rising to western living standards. That there's still a billion or so in poverty is just an indication of the scale of the problem to begin with.

They're not bombing the **** out of anywhere. Instead, they're building ports, roads, railways, and paying for natural resources. There are caviats here - they're getting something out of all of those projects too, often a very good deal, but it feels like a more proactive approach then european hand-wringing and aid that winds up in the hands of warlords, or US military intervention and more indirect support of coups to get their way.

Lots to criticise about them too, but let's not pretend 1.4 billion people don't have anything positive about them just because they're not a democracy (well, not just because... but that's another story).

Rows Grower wrote: »

Thanks for that insight Captain Obvious.

mikhail wrote: »

They've uplifted an enormous population out of poverty in just a few decades. They were dirt poor in the 70s, but the switch from a communist to a fascist system has resulted something like the population of the USA rising to western living standards. That there's still a billion or so in poverty is just an indication of the scale of the problem to begin with.