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I'm interested to see where China will be in 50 years. It's not even arguable that China and its strict government is liberalizing. Even its economy is doing so. It seems like it will have a very promising future. Who knows, maybe it will have joined the ranks of what we call developed countries with information economies and not manufacturing based economies. Who will be the China of the world then?
Hong Kong is largely independent from China - it has a 'special relationship' with the mainland, just like Taiwan, and is considered a democracy. If Hong Kong was a fully intergrated city like Shanghai, then it wouldn't be anywhere near as desirable as it is now. The Chinese are nice people from my experience (I meet plenty in my city), but I would dread the though of a Chinese superpower, and I would probably kill myself if my country was run by Chinese imperialists.
Not a country I would consider living in, there's too many things here that I enjoy that I would miss (the freedom to do what I want without having to adhere to Chinese authorities being one).
I can't help wondering: If you had been born in Hong Kong, would you have killed yourself when China took over? Why are you so sure that the Chinese would run the USA any differently then they run Hong Kong?
Doesn't it speak volumes, that when China took over Hong Kong, they did not subject their new property and citizens to any hardship or mistreatment or overly draconian governmental edicts. Instead they allowed Hong Kong to go on with business as usual and their accustomed lifestyle, and found a way for that to be to the advantage of both Hong Kong and China.
Must you necessarily exclude the possibility that the Chinese would administer their American colony in the same way that they exercise their authority in Hong Kong?
What, exactly, is it that you think you are free to do in the USA, that citizens of about 3/4 of the countries in the world are not free to do? Moreover, what freedom do other countries not have, that would be so drastic that you would kill yourself rather than to endure the loss of that freedom?
China has not accomplished a lot. The mere fact that they have 1,3 billion people is the reason that their overall GDP is high, the mere reason that they are where they are now. They are far, far away from a per capita GDP that would rival ours.
The U.S. is the most accepting country on this planet. While there have been problems, there is not other country with so much racial diversity. No other country with so many cultures and races living together peacefully, and successfully. So, yes, the U.S. is, indeed, a shining counter example.
The US is what you describe only because they had over two centuries to expropriate nearly 4 million square miles of land and exterminate nearly 25 million of its original inhabitants via biological and ballistic warfare. That's not to mention the capital the US accumulated on the backs of millions upon millions of slaves.
But after all that, America did manage to lift many generations out of poverty and create the greatest innovation culture in human history. So for that reason I say you should give China a bit more than 50 years to show what's possible.
I can only add that, from a long-term historical perspective, certain western European powers and their mostly English-speaking offspring had an around two-hundred year head start in industrialization, a relatively short period of time, and it is no surprise that the bulk of the rest of the world is starting to catch up.
You know, the ones who first developed agriculture as the mainstay of permanent settlements some 10,000 years or so ago were not the same ones as by, say, the end of the Roman Empire in western Europe who were actually the last ones to join the party as far a agriculture-based empires are concerned.
You know what they say, the first shall be last and the last shall be first. And so it was in the agriculture-to-industrialization cycle.
As for resource depletion, competition, potential war and a catastrophic backslide (not uncommon in the pre-industrial era), one can only hope in technological breakthroughs that will, hopefully, keep the peace. The historical record is mixed.
I can't help wondering: If you had been born in Hong Kong, would you have killed yourself when China took over? Why are you so sure that the Chinese would run the USA any differently then they run Hong Kong?
Doesn't it speak volumes, that when China took over Hong Kong, they did not subject their new property and citizens to any hardship or mistreatment or overly draconian governmental edicts. Instead they allowed Hong Kong to go on with business as usual and their accustomed lifestyle, and found a way for that to be to the advantage of both Hong Kong and China.
Must you necessarily exclude the possibility that the Chinese would administer their American colony in the same way that they exercise their authority in Hong Kong?
What, exactly, is it that you think you are free to do in the USA, that citizens of about 3/4 of the countries in the world are not free to do? Moreover, what freedom do other countries not have, that would be so drastic that you would kill yourself rather than to endure the loss of that freedom?
What speaks volumes is that you never miss an opportunity to criticize the US, but you have no problem defending China. I'm curious, why do you suppose that before the UK handed over Hong Kong they signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration which in essence said the Chinese were not to change anything in HK for 50 years?
Haven't visited, I love Chinese culture and Asian culture in general, and would love to visit China one day. My only problem I have is their government and the fact that they treat their citizens like crap.
True, China is unique. Not every country tortures and kills its own citizens, forces women to abort, imprisons everybody it dosen't like, oppresses regime critics, censors everything etc.
Oh, wait. Never-mind. That's what Hitler did, too.
don't be so judgmental. China is changing and progressing.
not a long time ago American women were not allowed to vote, and African Americans were treated as half human and couldn't sit in the same bus as the white people.
We have short memory, and as long as we get some sort of civilization, we just can't wait to laugh at those who are a bit behind.
Despite its problems, China pulled millions of people out of poverty within 20 years. Something no country was able to do.
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