The REALLY Long March

It's China week here at channel-one. Often, I've found myself defending China against some westerners. I would place it in the same class as the U.S., albeit for different reasons. There are a lot of things about both countries that I dislike - however since most of my conversations are with English speakers, I find that most opinions of China tend to be negative. Many times, there are good reasons for these negative impressions, however China also has a lot of strong points.

Anyways, I found an article today that provides an excellent counterpoint to my usual pro-China perspective. The Washington Post tempers praise for China's growing economy and I find the writer's analysis to be sound and fair. Essentially, he cites concerns with China's authoritarianism, environment, and economic ownership as reasons that China might never become the superpower that everyone expects.

To be fair, most of the problems he lists also affected the Soviet Union, and they had no problems becoming a superpower. Then again, the U.S.S.R. didn't have to feed 23% of the world's population with only 7% of the world's arable land...