Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T22:05:02.508Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

30 - China: A Powerhouse in Search of Grace

from PART III - THE BIG BOYS OF ASIAN GEOPOLITICS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2015

Get access

Summary

Visiting Shanghai and neighbouring Jiangsu province, it is difficult to avoid the feeling that a titan is rising. The energy of the people and the infrastructure bear witness to China's great strides forward. Communism did much damage, but it also accelerated the emancipation of women and provided free and compulsory education of nine years for both boys and girls. China's on-going historic transformation, a wonder to behold, has already lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty in just three decades.

Yet, while the modernization of hardware has leapt ahead, the software, as it were, perhaps unsurprisingly, lags behind. The highways of Shanghai are world-class, but motorists using them frequently flout traffic rules. Pedestrian crossings are provided for the security and safety of pedestrians but motorists believe they have the right of way, making crossing of roads, especially for the elderly, a serious hazard.

It is puzzling that some condominiums in Shanghai, a city considered relatively safe to live in, are ringed by conspicuous live electric wire fences mounted on concrete walls. Is it to enhance security or to flaunt their exclusiveness? Whatever the reason, they could have a divisive effect because they are said to annoy many ordinary people, and thus are not conducive to the government's stated goal of achieving a harmonious society. Another oddity is that in Jiangsu province the fees for entry to some of the historic and cultural sites seems way too high for the average Chinese. For instance it costs 90 yuan (S$17) to enter the Pingshan temple in Yangzhou, as much as a comfortable First Class train ride from Shanghai to Zengchiang, a distance of about 200 kilometers. The trishaw-man in Yangzhou gets 3 yuan for ferrying a passenger (or two) for 10–15 minutes.

Deng Xiao-ping's slogan to let some people get rich first may have been too successfully implemented, needing midcourse adjustment to deal with growing inequalities. The ugly aspects of capitalism in a system characterised as socialism with Chinese characteristics can be starkly visible.

Type
Chapter
Information
By Design or Accident
Reflections on Asian Security
, pp. 125 - 127
Publisher: ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×