Posted on 12/25/2010 10:57:27 AM PST by mojito
...Take Shanghai, China’s largest city, with a population of more than 19 million. Originally built by Europeans for Europeans, Shanghai has preserved some of the streets of its West-in-the-East past and boasts a lively, nearly tropical ambience that endears it to foreign visitors. But the Chinese government has, unsurprisingly, sought to transform the city into a glittering showcase of China’s rising power—above all, to lure foreign banks and investors away from Hong Kong. The tactic has yet to succeed: Hong Kong remains more attractive, though less because of its impressive buildings (Shanghai’s can compete in height, if not in architectural quality) than because of its commitment to the rule of law.
Shanghai is a “costly facade to maintain,” confesses Yan Hansheng, its deputy mayor for finance. The city’s primary financial resources are still its traditional factories, owned mostly by the government, which continue to grind out steel, cars, and textiles. These industries, located west of the city center, remain hidden behind the costly facade; few foreigners ever travel that far. To protect Shanghai’s gleaming appearance further, the government also keeps tight control over the population. Officials view the peasant migrants who work menial jobs in Shanghai as a stain on the Western-oriented city and prevent them from living there or sending their children to local schools.
(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...
China to me seems like a house of cards. Too much, too fast, too rigged, too controlled. I think overall they are in worse shape than we are.
In practical terms this is little different than New York or San Francisco or LA, where you have a bunch of rich people who live in the city center with the poor support personnel banished to the outer rims at night.
Remember the fake educational statistics from 3 weeks ago, saying that Shanghai led the world in science and math score?
I wonder what the test real scores were from West Shanghai, where the slave population lives, most of the real population?
The Chinese have an incentive to inflate their real scores, for "face" purposes. The US education establishment has an incentive for scores going down, to justify spending more money.
I certainly do. "Educators" were gaga, but the whole stunt was so blatantly a circus manipulated into being by the Communists that you had to wonder who would be naive enough for fall for such a stunt? Obviously, the answer could only be the left-leaning "educatariat."
Don’t kid yourself. The Chinese *value* education. Those documentaries about students studying 12hours a day are not faked. There is little doubt that they are ahead of the west there.
I have the same impression. Part of it comes from the writings of Gordon Chang of Forbes who forecasts some kind of collapse. The other is simply the belief that authoritarian leftists ultimately mess everything up.
I am just back from Warsaw, Poland, a city I regularly visit. In 1939 it had a great mayor, politically conservative, who oversaw the renovation of the city’s infrastructure, including the development of many parks.
Then it had the misfortune of being destroyed by the Nazis and rebuilt by the Communists. But despite their tendency toward concrete shoe-boxes, the Communists did a few things right, rebuilding the Old Town and historical buildings according to the original designs. And the parks remained.
Post-Communist Warsaw is a thriving, market oriented city with a very livable atmosphere. Modern buildings, skyscrapers, and handsome apartment developments have emerged, and the parks are still there. It is a city in which one can feel very comfortable.
They are just copying everything from everybody else.
They do not have the technology to produce a 10 megapixel IP camera. -
probably 3 years behind us,
but they will steal the technology and copy it to try to catch up.
“...house of cards...”
You are so right! All it would take is for something seemingly minor to go wrong and everything will tumble down.
Looks like a good article - bttt.
Looks like a good article - bttt.
I agree with you. The Chinese do value education. It is the only way out of the “class” that they were born in. But and it’s a big one. The education they receive is all rote. There is little to no emphasis in “thinking outside of the box”.
Mind you, my experience with them was in the 1960’s. But I don’t think that the emphasis on education has changed.
In a sense they are.
They are putting so much money into their over-valued stock market and way, way, way, over-valued real estate market that when they crash it will wipe out vast sums of money.
Sort of like the U.S. when bond prices start to rise and we can’t afford that debt anymore.
Still the same, although not surprising, after decades of trying. Communist China is always so vain and pretentious. Why so? Why is painting “gold” on its face so important? If Chicom wants to prove something, the best way to prove is to really guarantee its people with the basic human rights, happiness, and good life— rights given by God to every birth (NOT by any government).
I have visited both Shanghai and Seoul, and from a foreigner's perspective, they are both vivid, vibrant cities with a bustling nightlife. Notice that the author is silent about Shanghi's nightlife, although he does (correctly) mention that Beijing is dead after 8pm.
Bottom line is that all three of these cities are nicer to visit and safer than any large American city. I would rather visit one of these 3 than visit, say, Chicago.
Who'd be crazy enough to try... oh wait. Never mind.
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