China 2000

A detailed Summary of China 2000

What is China? Is it maybe the image of the ancient times with the glorious old dynasties, the powerful emperors, the wondrous temples, the fascinating winding gardens...? Or is it maybe a strict communist world with uniformed people wearing Mao suits and living in dreary gray concrete apartment blocks...? Or perhaps it is the skyscrapers of Hong Kong and Shanghai, the horrendous traffic, the buzzing commotion, ultra modern electronics and plate glass buildings...? In reality, China is all this in one. It is a land that intertwines a miraculous ancestral heritage with a capitalist reality blooming in the heart of a still surviving communist system.

In today's China, the gigantic population (1,300,000,000 people) is experiencing an extremity gap between the very rich and the very poor. The still existing Chinese communist system provides "cradle to grave" caretaking for its citizens. All major services like housing, education and medical treatment are currently supplied by the government; however, they are accessible only according to area registration in the community in which people are born. Lack of such registration or change of area of residence leaves people on their own. The majority of people in the ci

So, who is to weigh the costs and benefits of the dam's construction? Who is to convince people in need that the preliminary benefits to be experienced will boomerang back in the form of a disaster? Surely not us, Westerners, who have constructed so many abuse-of-nature projects thus paving the path for other non-Western countries to follow.

Politically, after the death of Mao Tse Tung, his successor Deng Xiaoping ushered a more pragmatic form of communism and opened the country to foreign influences and investments. With the introduction of market economy, an increasing number of cities are adapting the capitalist model following a privatization trend. Major cities like Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing are acquiring the face of modern Western cities with McDonald's and KFC food chains around every corner, huge shopping malls brimming with electronics, popular cosmetic and fashion brands. This transition to capitalism is establishing a new living environment invoking pressing economic needs for the ordinary Chinese people. In response, the younger and more economically aware have began setting up their own small private businesses by turning ground floor communal kitchens into private shops supplied with anything that sells, erecting wooden stalls on every street or overloading their ubiquitous bicycles with moving fast-food kitchens, mechanical parts, goods, etc. On the other hand, the majority of people, being alien to the emergent economic change and lacking in sufficient means to respond to it, are struck by poverty and unemployment. In the city of Xian, for example, crowds of people can be seen along the streets waiting to be hired, holding signs indicating their professions or the tools of their trade.

Life in rural China, on the other hand, is less dependent on government housing schemes but is stamped by poverty. People living in villages have their own houses but they are usually small built of mud bricks with earthen floors and walls. Some villages have only one communal water tap and living conditions are extremely miserable. Little children and babies can be seen playing around with their bare bottoms hanging out of their slit open pants, diapers being a rare commodity.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Kong Shanghai, Dam Project, McDonald's KFC, Gorges Yangtse, North Korea, Project Hope, Medicine Traditional, , Deng Xiaoping, Surely Westerners, communist system, hong kong shanghai, gorges dam, kong shanghai, hong kong, medical treatment, health care, surviving communist, housing education, barefoot doctors, population 1300000000,

Approximate Word count = 1731
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics