One fundamental weakness is that "the Wild East" should be better viewed as a nation-level type urban renewal project rather than something of vast unexplored territory. These places were far richer than Europe 900 years ago, and in fact New Zealand or the United States as we know it didn't really exist yet. Free market, and variants of it, had been practised by accident or reluctance in some time during the early Western Han and Tang dynasties.
And as Will Hutton's new book "The Writing on the Wall" addresses to the Western audience that we Chinese know only too well, PR China is fundamentally not "socialism with a market economy" or what Westerners assume as unbridled free market policies, but rather a variant of old-fashioned Leninist corporatism. But rather than done in the name of state departments, they are done in the name of private enterprise that are controlled by the cousin of the Party boss in Zhejiang province for instance etc. And cracks are appearing that most Westerners don't know - yet. It is reported in Chinese-language media Hu Jintao warned the Party Politburo in December about a possibility of the economy coming down like a stack of cards in 2008.
Hey! You're stealing my thunder for Part II.
...thanks for the info :-)
Cheers!
Hey! You're stealing my thunder for Part II.
...thanks for the info :-)
Cheers!
Now you're talking about something I've been thinking and wondering about for a year or so. Hopefully you'll get pinged for the next article so you can elaborate further. Sounds like you have some very meaningful things to say. Love to hear them.
If old (haha) grey whiskers doesn't ping you I will.
You were spot on.
How's it feel to have scooped most of the civilized world?
Cheers!