China's internet: A giant cage. Cancer Villages - China. Ghost Cities - China. China 2.0 Is in Trouble. Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog, Despite the many differences between China and the U.S., their basic problems are remarkably similiar: an economy that increasingly serves a tiny Elite, and a political/financial system that is incapable of meaningful reform.
Setting aside the latest bird flu outbreak and sagging indicators of growth, China 2.0 is in trouble (with 1.0 being the Communist era of 1949 -1977 and 2.0 being the modernization/globalization era of 1978 - 2013), for it remains overly reliant on unsustainable growth dynamics. The following is my summary of the excellent talks given by Jim Chanos and Michael Pettis at Mish's insight-packed Wine Country Conference in Sonoma earlier this month.
(Any errors in presenting the speakers' views are of course mine.) Here are Chanos' lecture slides and interviews with Chanos and Pettis: In effect, China has suppressed wages to fuel GDP growth. Pettis said the Chinese government is pushing a "go west" campaign. China 2.0 Is in Trouble. The Economist explains: How does China censor the internet? The Devastating Effects of Pollution in China (Part 1/2) Chinese growth and the question of economic rebalancing | observingrealities. Censorship in China: Shifting dynamics of control. IT WAS bound to be a messy combination and, according to a new report on censorship in China, it is. The country has an estimated 600m internet users who are growing ever more accustomed to reading what they want and saying what they think.
It also has a rigid one-party system, the leaders of which are ever more determined to keep at least a modicum of control over what may be read and said online. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based NGO, describes the nation’s complicated information landscape in a 27-page report released Tuesday, “Challenged in China: The shifting dynamics of censorship and control.” The group says that China’s traditional press, “controlled by the state and beset by propaganda directives,” now co-exists with “a new online ecosystem where news breaks and spreads faster than censors can catch it.” “Today’s Chinese citizens are more informed, interconnected, and worldly than ever. (Picture credit: Committee to Protect Journalists)