China: The Great Divide ; It's Become the Powerhouse of World Consumerism, yet the Vast Majority of Its People Still Live in Stone Age Poverty. In the Third Part of This Major Series, Max Hastings Asks What the New Revolution has Done for Them ...

Summary

---

CHINA has swept to economic might on the back of a political system which resembles no other on earth. It still claims to be communist, and the Communist Party possesses a monopoly of political power.

The cult of personality under Mao Tse-Tung has been replaced by a cult of unpersonality. A nine-strong standing committee of the Party's Politburo rules the country, but few Chinese could tell you the names of any of its members, save perhaps President Hu Jintao.

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

China: The Great Divide ; It's Become the Powerhouse of World Consumerism, yet the Vast Majority of Its People Still Live in Stone Age Poverty. In the Third Part of This Major Series, Max Hastings Asks What the New Revolution has Done for Them ...

Yet personal enterprise now dominates China, redder in tooth and claw than Margaret

Thatcher would ever have dreamed of. State workers enjoy a few rights and modest pensions, but private employees have none.

Some 200 million migrants from the countryside have poured into the cities, generating an unskilled workforce which earns pittances, and exists in conditions of abject austerity.

'Foreigners come here and see all our buildings and apartment complexes wonderful new cities and modern buildings,' says Professor Qin Hui of Beijing's Qin...

See the full content of this document

---