Where is Mao?

The China I saw on TV when Nixon went to visit no longer exists. Communism has a new face in China and it looks exactly like capitalism. Check out the National Geographic website to see it with your own eyes. 

No longer will you see those green/grey suits everyone used to wear. No longer will you see those little red books in everyone's hands. No longer will you see some poor schmuck standing in the street with a sign around his neck telling of his "crimes" against the party and the country. China is now a nation full of of cell phones, shopping malls, and a Sam's Club that looks more like a Nordstroms. 

But, what you also see is a country with the some of the most dirty air in the world, and food that some athletes, there for the Olympic Games, won't be eating for fear of getting sick. The United States team members will be eating food brought from the US and cooked by teams chefs. 

Becoming this new commu/capitalist nation has cost the Chinese people and their environment. It's hard to find a picture of people in Beijing who aren't wearing some kind of mask, although it seems less important for the people of Shanghai to cover up. In a survey done by the magazine's staff, most young Chinese say money is more important to them than love. Sad, really. Family used to be the most important thing. Well.... that and the things written in that little red book. 

I wonder what China will look like in twenty years? Will it have moved to being more free? Will this boom make them the most powerful nation in the world, and put us in our place? Time will tell. I saw some guy who runs an investing firm on a CBS news program saying he had over 200 billion dollars to invest in the west, particularly in the United States. We borrow money from them at an alarming rate. Could be that one day this country will be forced, by the weight of its debt, to become the United States of the People's Republic of China. All hail Mao! Do you think they will give us all Little Red Books?