Hu Jintao has put forward a bold vision for a harmonious society, promising to clean up the environment, end corruption, and bring economic prosperity to all–a veritable chicken in every hot pot. But as this excellent overview from the Economist points out, the devil is in the details and despite Hu’s utopian vision, nobody’s actually said how the CCP intends to do any of this. To be fair, we in the US are familiar with this formula as well: (utopian vision)-(concrete policies)/a country=our Iraq policy. Now solve for x.)
“Mr Hu can afford to spend more on the countryside, health care and education thanks to strong growth in government revenues. But he and other party leaders remain focused on the party’s paramount objective: maintaining social stability. Although corruption, rural poverty and damage to the environment threaten this, party leaders are still more concerned about the danger of unemployment.”
Meanwhile, Europe frets over the growing power of East Asia, leading Gabor Steingart to wonder in Spiegel Online if it’s time for an economic NATO to counterbalance the Asian ‘threat.’ In language that would not be out of place in the musty “Yellow Peril” screeds of the early 20th