For a while now, the word on the street has been that mainland China is the next up and coming superpower. Having lived there for over a year, I can tell you with all sincerity that you have nothing to fear.
Listening to Peter Navarro’s commentary on the Chinese government brought me back to thoughts of Wujiang, the small town in Jiangsu province where I had resided. Construction was at an all time high. Posters of a “Super Mall” currently being built were stuck around my tiny country neighborhood, promising to bring white foreigners to the area (white people = prosperity). My boyfriend and I were asked (or rather required) to be in a government play whose main message was how wonderful Wujiang would be after its boom. (We were the white foreigners who were overly excited to be in the town.)
It seemed as if everyone was forgetting or refusing to acknowledge the fact that a “Super Mall” built only one year earlier did not bring the foreigners promised, had been forced to close due to lack of sales and that people were constantly being displaced to make way for new government projects.
These “projects” – whether it was a mall, exercise center, or music hall – were ridiculous. People in the area made around 600 kuai a month (approx. $80) and could not afford to partake in such luxuries. The government never considered these factors, all they saw was the promise of money. Needless to say, I never witnessed one endeavor that proved successful.
That’s the way it was (and is) in China – you don’t challenge the government. What the government said went – always. There were some individuals that confided in the foreigners around them, but due to fear of government backlash, would never speak these words amongst other Chinese. It was like living in 1984.
