本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛ar FRONTLINE,
I was really moved by the program, which reflected the truely current China, with a huge number of people living in rural area heavily exploited by all classes above them, with millions of workers having futureless life after devoted all their youth energy to the state factories.
As a grad student from China, my dad and mom all worked in state factores for their all life and now have a mere life. I personally know lots of childern who left home to cities only to end up with poignant exploitation. Your program bring my heart to China, which I love deeply.
Thank you for your effort to let the people here know what is happening in China, neither (communism) hell nor heaven.
vancouver, bc, canada
Dear FRONTLINE,
I would like to congratulate Ms. Sue William, her colleagues, and PBS FRONTLINE for this triumphal documentary ?China in the Red?
I hope more Mainland Chinese, not only Americans, will have the chance to see this program on your website, one day.
As a Taiwanese Chinese American, I have witnessed some of the similar problems facing today抯 China the way they challenged Taiwanese people years ago. Mainly the transformation from a society ruled by an authoritarian regime to a civil society of Constitutional Democracy and 搑ule of law? after all, both societies across the strait are deeply rooted in Chinese cultures and traditions (both good and not-so-good parts of Chinese culture).
Taiwan抯 successful transformation might have two advantages that China did not have: (1) Taiwan never had Communism implemented in the first place; (2) Taiwan抯 authoritarian regime, KMT, endorsed general principles of Constitutional Democracy, at least in public, that few Taiwanese people ever doubt the validity of a democratic civil society.
Without the advantages that Taiwan enjoyed, can China succeed in transforming? Personally, I am cautiously optimistic because of one powerful incentive ?Chinese people抯 desire and hunger to have a better life, if not for themselves, at least for their children. In the dire situation brought by economic changes, one Chinese mother expressed: "My life doesn't matter," says Zhang, through tears. "My only hope is that my daughter can go to college and live a good life."
Steven Chen
nyc, ny
Dear FRONTLINE,
Awesome, awesome, awesome. I am an Arizona Junior high history teacher and I must reference China's modern system frequently.
How cool to see the truth. My hundred students will be amazed. I used to teach them about the 2-child system. I can't wait to tell them about China's one-child policy that can be bought-off with money and connections. How insane our planet and it's cultures seem to us lucky Americans. And then the corrupt mayor who got the death penalty...how do I teach about that? If you think about it, there's arguments for both sides on that one.
Because of Frontline, I feel a duty to become a contributor to PBS.
Gary Fohs
bullhead city, arizona
Dear FRONTLINE,
Thank you Frontline and the producers for a well-done documentary on China in the reform era. While much English material has been written about the numerous and daunting challenges facing modern China, it's nice to see a high-profile TV program covering the issue and lending a sense of immediacy to the problems by presenting the lives of ordinary Chinese citizens bearing the social cost of these reforms.
Several segments had personal relevance (my grandma is a retired Capital Steel manager and an uncle former VP of a Shenyang SOE involved in the corruption scandal - and briefly shown in the program). Those portrayals were poignant because of their familiarity and accuracy. And precisely because of the documentary's faithful reflection of the current Chinese society on a human level, I hope it will give American audiences a better understanding to address any doubts, pessimism or impatience toward China's reform programs. Mainly, that while external and internal pressures applied toward China to accelerate its economic and political reforms is needed, there is a very real, and often prohibitive, cost in implementing them: harsh social and economic instability on the very people portrayed in the program - magnified in the hundreds of millions.
But above all else I hope programs like these and China's increasing presence in the media will help inspire us ("generation Y" oversea Chinese and ABCs) to channel our youth and energy to contribute and shape China's critical transition to a more liberal society. I sincerely believe that we have something unique and necessary to offer - especially in the area of better Sino-US relations.
Oh, and kudos on the soundtrack. Cui Jian for urbanites, Tian Zhen for rural farmers and Faye Wang for white-collar yuppies. Very impressive selections.
Brian Zhang
la, ca
Dear FRONTLINE,
An excellent program. I couldn't turn my eyes away, or my ears for that matter. I wanted to send thyroid medication to the woman with an obvious goiter, or help in some way. The woman whose husband had a stroke and was demoted also moved me. We are so spoiled in the West. I was disturbed a bit by the materialism of the successful marketing consultant. Why do we in the West export the worst of our values?
What I'd like to know is some more about the music, particularly the woman singing several songs that were not rock, but gentle songs, almost angelic. I don't see any credits which list the songs performers. If this information is available I would love to have it.
Karen Roberts
atascadero, ca
FRONTLINE's editors respond:
Producer Sue Williams talks about the music used in the film in her interview elsewhere on this site.
Dear FRONTLINE,
All I can say is, Wow!
I just spent the last two hours watching China in the Red through the PBS.org website from China. (Yes, it's true. It's not blocked here.)
I taught at a university in Northeast China during the same period that Ms. William's was filming this show and I can testify that she paints an utterly accurate picture of what I saw and experienced there during that time.
I am now on the faculty of Zhejiang University in southeast China but my heart remains with the people of the Northeast. I can assure your viewers that there are tens of millions of Feng Hui-Xiu's and Zhang Shu Yan's. And the difficulties of the children in gaining access to good education is on my "frontline" everyday.
Thank you to PBS and Sue Williams for showing the rest of the world that China is not a sea of faceless masses. Thank you for giving these great people face.
Chuck Allanson
hangzhou, zhejiang, china
FRONTLINE's editors respond:
According to those who have studied internet censorship in China over the past couple of years, there are variations, both geographically and over time, for a blocked site such as PBS. Read more about Internet blocking in the "Democracy" section of this web site.
Dear FRONTLINE,
What's so startling about this documentary is its complete lack of moral compass on the fundamental issues concerning every Chinese citizen.
It devotes the entire program to portraying the preponderance and enormity of China's economic problems and its social and cultural ramifications, with the unmistakable message that due to these economic distresses, all other issues such as human rights, press freedom, and democracy should give way to solving the economic problems first--the very ferocious Party line Beijing has been carrying out in suppressing millions of their fundamental rights in China. In fact, the very last concluding statement of the documentary comes from Wu Jinglian, the Chinese Government economist: If we follow the current path of the Party, China will overcome its overwhelming difficulties and there will be hope for China to become DEMOCRATIC!!"
Yes, there is the problem of corruption, which the program amply states, but two minutes after the devastating indictment of the Party's corruption by a young brave economist, the specific example given was the workshop boss in the Capital Steel who blames the rampant corruption on the job-seeking ordinary workers! In the eyes of producer Sue Williams, the Communist Party officials are CORRUPTED but not CORRUPT themselves, just like the hard-working, "universally loved" Shenyang Mayor Mu Sui-xin (an evil Party official who threw away millions of public funds at Macau's gambling houses, and who was the most hated man in entire Shenyang city by any standards).
The double moral standard on China in this film is also intolerable: if the filmmaker were banned from interviewing her audience in the Soviet Union, North Korea, Boston, or Washington DC, she would have been most violently protesting for press freedom infridgement, yet in her film, she was frequently banned from talking to her intended interviewees, but that's okay and all understandable, because, well, China is special, where human rights, press freedoms must give away to "Chinese characteristics." As a Chinese myself, I find this quite insulting and disgusting!
This conceptual bias has also led to numerous deceptive manipulations in the film. In order to stress the "harsh" life of a communist cadre in the Capital Steel, the film completely twists what was said in the Chinese original--the cadre says he lives in a place of only 600 "pingmi" (square METERS!, which is huge by Chinese standard), yet the English voiceover makes it "600 square FEET!!. Mistakes such as this permeates the entire documentary and I don't think it's just linguistic incompetence.
The most urgent task facing China is not a few more billions of tax payers' money in the West, but a lot more democratic institutions and unabashed condemnations from the civilized world on China's horrendous human rights violations.
Maochun Yu
annapolis, maryland
Dear FRONTLINE,
Thank you for viewing an excellent and timely film on China. This is one of the best documentaries I've watched in years.
In addition to the film, I find the discussions by the China experts on your "Democracy" section of this site particularly interesting and insightful, particular the remarks made by Ms. Ogden and Ms. Thurston.
V. M. Lam
san francisco, ca
Dear FRONTLINE,
What a wonderful of piece of journalism!
My biggest question on the program is: is there a clever or more humanistic approch to democracy? or what is democracy? Democracy is merely a ideal dream, or is it a model that everyone can copy? Is it possible to follow the path that people here in the states have paved for many years of breaking through all the obstacles?
China is exactly tring to find a way to make a transition to market economy. Yet look at the human suffering and emotional distress, I really doubt this is natural path for which all the common citizens of China would willingly to follow. ... Of course finding your own way is bloody tough, getting somebody else's idea is much more prefered. That's human nature.
I wonder if China in 20 or 30 years will become so preoccupied with western democratic doctrines or a total capitalist society that big corporations control every aspects of social life, put a little salt of communist, or whatever become then, authoritarian system. Polarization of wealth become so severe that government do whatever it can to glorify the riches. Social justice become entertaining isssue, government become corporations' agency.
I myself is an architect. I can design building for a comfort living. But I can't design social structure that will let all human live comfortably. I am sad because my gutt feeling is blaiming myself as incapable professional.
David Chen
nyc, ny
FRONTLINE's editors respond:
In the "Democracy" section of this web site you can read a discussion by experts on the prospects for democracy and other questions raised by the letter writer.
Dear FRONTLINE,
I hope there will be more unbiased portral of China like this in the future.
I grew up in a huge state-own factory in South China, went to Beijing for college, and then came to the United States for grad study. These have been big jumps in my life. The factory my parents worked for almost crashed down several years ago. My dad, 58 years old, lost his job with little compensation when my mom have been retired for several years. My sister, after a long-time argument with my parents, quitted her "steady work" with meager salary and left our hometown to look for jobs in another city. There are still stories going on in my family as well as millions of other Chinese families.
I appreaciate your excellent job in displaying life of ordinary people like my family and many of my freinds! I see the reforms and changes positively, while at the same time, I totally understand the painful experiences of many individuals in surviving or just adjusting to the dramatic transformations in every aspects of their life.
Anna Liu
los angeles, ca
Dear FRONTLINE,
What an incredible feat! I am a movie producer and my husband is a film editor. We enjoyed every moment of footage. We just returned from China about 3 mos. ago with our little girl who is the light of our lives. We watched your program with her sleeping peacefully in our arms. We wondered who her parents were, what was their situation? Did they abandon her because they could now afford to have children or because she was a girl? Were they peasants or from the city? Thank you for taking us past the concrete walls of the apartment buildings and inside the homes of people just like our daughter's biological family. It makes us feel closer to her and closer to her complex and beautiful birthplace of China. It also underscored a much treasure saying in the Chinese adoption community: Yi Nu Ping An "One child, peaceful and safe"
Danielle Lovett
los angeles, ca
Dear FRONTLINE,
The film was wonderful and I hope many in the US will appreciate our education program. Just about every parent was concerned about paying for their child's education.
My heart goes out to the daughter of the woman in Chestnut Flower Village who had to leave school because of her mother's illness. She just looked so broken. I made a vow last night that I will do what ever I can to put this girl through school. Eating $25 less a month is where I plan to start. I hope many others will give when a fund is set up here.
J manago
chandler, az
Dear FRONTLINE,
This is the best and most real picture about china.
Thanks for the contribution from the team.
Is it possible to have a video available?
Yong xie
tucson, az
FRONTLINE's editors respond:
The full program can be viewed online here on the web site.
Dear FRONTLINE,
Well PBS have done it again.
Frontline has to be the best programe on tv,a ll the stories are so inetrseting and i look forward to every thursday. Last night on China was one of the best documentaries i have every seen, as good as the BBC and CBC.
Brilliant.
Keep up the great work.
floyd gadd
st louis, mo
Dear FRONTLINE,
I am still unable to take the images of people interviewed from my mind. The steel factory worker, the lady with thyroid problem, the son who goes to the city to learn refrigration - to me their facial expression conveyed more than their words. I thank the folks behind "Frontline" for this excellent piece of work.
In mathematics, we have the concept of "necessary and sufficient". Evidently, for long-term irreversible kind of growth, it is "necessary" that there is political reform in China. Unless, there is transparent (corruption-free), plurastic and grass-root level democracy in China, the divide between rich and poor will just increase and the current economic growth may not be sustainable.
Compartively speaking, India has a functioning democratic system with high penetration level right into villages ("panchyat system"), unfortunately, highly-corrupt at the same time. Nonetheless, the growth in India seems to be of organic nature - slow and steady. More like an "elephant" as oppossed to "roaring tiger". More of "brick-and-mortar" variety versus "dot-commish" bubble.
Naren Chawla
fremont, ca
Dear FRONTLINE,
China in the Red was certainly an ambitious project and you suceeded in providing a glimpse of common citizens going through this cataclysmic change.
However, I do feel your focus on only the two extreme ends of the economic spectrum showed an incomplete portrayal of the people of China. For example, you ignorned the burgeoning middle class or even lower middle class who are responsible for much of the economic growth. To only use Mr. Zhang Wu as the example of a benefactor of the economic change is a disservice, bordering on bias.
Dai-Shan Wong
houston, tx更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
I was really moved by the program, which reflected the truely current China, with a huge number of people living in rural area heavily exploited by all classes above them, with millions of workers having futureless life after devoted all their youth energy to the state factories.
As a grad student from China, my dad and mom all worked in state factores for their all life and now have a mere life. I personally know lots of childern who left home to cities only to end up with poignant exploitation. Your program bring my heart to China, which I love deeply.
Thank you for your effort to let the people here know what is happening in China, neither (communism) hell nor heaven.
vancouver, bc, canada
Dear FRONTLINE,
I would like to congratulate Ms. Sue William, her colleagues, and PBS FRONTLINE for this triumphal documentary ?China in the Red?
I hope more Mainland Chinese, not only Americans, will have the chance to see this program on your website, one day.
As a Taiwanese Chinese American, I have witnessed some of the similar problems facing today抯 China the way they challenged Taiwanese people years ago. Mainly the transformation from a society ruled by an authoritarian regime to a civil society of Constitutional Democracy and 搑ule of law? after all, both societies across the strait are deeply rooted in Chinese cultures and traditions (both good and not-so-good parts of Chinese culture).
Taiwan抯 successful transformation might have two advantages that China did not have: (1) Taiwan never had Communism implemented in the first place; (2) Taiwan抯 authoritarian regime, KMT, endorsed general principles of Constitutional Democracy, at least in public, that few Taiwanese people ever doubt the validity of a democratic civil society.
Without the advantages that Taiwan enjoyed, can China succeed in transforming? Personally, I am cautiously optimistic because of one powerful incentive ?Chinese people抯 desire and hunger to have a better life, if not for themselves, at least for their children. In the dire situation brought by economic changes, one Chinese mother expressed: "My life doesn't matter," says Zhang, through tears. "My only hope is that my daughter can go to college and live a good life."
Steven Chen
nyc, ny
Dear FRONTLINE,
Awesome, awesome, awesome. I am an Arizona Junior high history teacher and I must reference China's modern system frequently.
How cool to see the truth. My hundred students will be amazed. I used to teach them about the 2-child system. I can't wait to tell them about China's one-child policy that can be bought-off with money and connections. How insane our planet and it's cultures seem to us lucky Americans. And then the corrupt mayor who got the death penalty...how do I teach about that? If you think about it, there's arguments for both sides on that one.
Because of Frontline, I feel a duty to become a contributor to PBS.
Gary Fohs
bullhead city, arizona
Dear FRONTLINE,
Thank you Frontline and the producers for a well-done documentary on China in the reform era. While much English material has been written about the numerous and daunting challenges facing modern China, it's nice to see a high-profile TV program covering the issue and lending a sense of immediacy to the problems by presenting the lives of ordinary Chinese citizens bearing the social cost of these reforms.
Several segments had personal relevance (my grandma is a retired Capital Steel manager and an uncle former VP of a Shenyang SOE involved in the corruption scandal - and briefly shown in the program). Those portrayals were poignant because of their familiarity and accuracy. And precisely because of the documentary's faithful reflection of the current Chinese society on a human level, I hope it will give American audiences a better understanding to address any doubts, pessimism or impatience toward China's reform programs. Mainly, that while external and internal pressures applied toward China to accelerate its economic and political reforms is needed, there is a very real, and often prohibitive, cost in implementing them: harsh social and economic instability on the very people portrayed in the program - magnified in the hundreds of millions.
But above all else I hope programs like these and China's increasing presence in the media will help inspire us ("generation Y" oversea Chinese and ABCs) to channel our youth and energy to contribute and shape China's critical transition to a more liberal society. I sincerely believe that we have something unique and necessary to offer - especially in the area of better Sino-US relations.
Oh, and kudos on the soundtrack. Cui Jian for urbanites, Tian Zhen for rural farmers and Faye Wang for white-collar yuppies. Very impressive selections.
Brian Zhang
la, ca
Dear FRONTLINE,
An excellent program. I couldn't turn my eyes away, or my ears for that matter. I wanted to send thyroid medication to the woman with an obvious goiter, or help in some way. The woman whose husband had a stroke and was demoted also moved me. We are so spoiled in the West. I was disturbed a bit by the materialism of the successful marketing consultant. Why do we in the West export the worst of our values?
What I'd like to know is some more about the music, particularly the woman singing several songs that were not rock, but gentle songs, almost angelic. I don't see any credits which list the songs performers. If this information is available I would love to have it.
Karen Roberts
atascadero, ca
FRONTLINE's editors respond:
Producer Sue Williams talks about the music used in the film in her interview elsewhere on this site.
Dear FRONTLINE,
All I can say is, Wow!
I just spent the last two hours watching China in the Red through the PBS.org website from China. (Yes, it's true. It's not blocked here.)
I taught at a university in Northeast China during the same period that Ms. William's was filming this show and I can testify that she paints an utterly accurate picture of what I saw and experienced there during that time.
I am now on the faculty of Zhejiang University in southeast China but my heart remains with the people of the Northeast. I can assure your viewers that there are tens of millions of Feng Hui-Xiu's and Zhang Shu Yan's. And the difficulties of the children in gaining access to good education is on my "frontline" everyday.
Thank you to PBS and Sue Williams for showing the rest of the world that China is not a sea of faceless masses. Thank you for giving these great people face.
Chuck Allanson
hangzhou, zhejiang, china
FRONTLINE's editors respond:
According to those who have studied internet censorship in China over the past couple of years, there are variations, both geographically and over time, for a blocked site such as PBS. Read more about Internet blocking in the "Democracy" section of this web site.
Dear FRONTLINE,
What's so startling about this documentary is its complete lack of moral compass on the fundamental issues concerning every Chinese citizen.
It devotes the entire program to portraying the preponderance and enormity of China's economic problems and its social and cultural ramifications, with the unmistakable message that due to these economic distresses, all other issues such as human rights, press freedom, and democracy should give way to solving the economic problems first--the very ferocious Party line Beijing has been carrying out in suppressing millions of their fundamental rights in China. In fact, the very last concluding statement of the documentary comes from Wu Jinglian, the Chinese Government economist: If we follow the current path of the Party, China will overcome its overwhelming difficulties and there will be hope for China to become DEMOCRATIC!!"
Yes, there is the problem of corruption, which the program amply states, but two minutes after the devastating indictment of the Party's corruption by a young brave economist, the specific example given was the workshop boss in the Capital Steel who blames the rampant corruption on the job-seeking ordinary workers! In the eyes of producer Sue Williams, the Communist Party officials are CORRUPTED but not CORRUPT themselves, just like the hard-working, "universally loved" Shenyang Mayor Mu Sui-xin (an evil Party official who threw away millions of public funds at Macau's gambling houses, and who was the most hated man in entire Shenyang city by any standards).
The double moral standard on China in this film is also intolerable: if the filmmaker were banned from interviewing her audience in the Soviet Union, North Korea, Boston, or Washington DC, she would have been most violently protesting for press freedom infridgement, yet in her film, she was frequently banned from talking to her intended interviewees, but that's okay and all understandable, because, well, China is special, where human rights, press freedoms must give away to "Chinese characteristics." As a Chinese myself, I find this quite insulting and disgusting!
This conceptual bias has also led to numerous deceptive manipulations in the film. In order to stress the "harsh" life of a communist cadre in the Capital Steel, the film completely twists what was said in the Chinese original--the cadre says he lives in a place of only 600 "pingmi" (square METERS!, which is huge by Chinese standard), yet the English voiceover makes it "600 square FEET!!. Mistakes such as this permeates the entire documentary and I don't think it's just linguistic incompetence.
The most urgent task facing China is not a few more billions of tax payers' money in the West, but a lot more democratic institutions and unabashed condemnations from the civilized world on China's horrendous human rights violations.
Maochun Yu
annapolis, maryland
Dear FRONTLINE,
Thank you for viewing an excellent and timely film on China. This is one of the best documentaries I've watched in years.
In addition to the film, I find the discussions by the China experts on your "Democracy" section of this site particularly interesting and insightful, particular the remarks made by Ms. Ogden and Ms. Thurston.
V. M. Lam
san francisco, ca
Dear FRONTLINE,
What a wonderful of piece of journalism!
My biggest question on the program is: is there a clever or more humanistic approch to democracy? or what is democracy? Democracy is merely a ideal dream, or is it a model that everyone can copy? Is it possible to follow the path that people here in the states have paved for many years of breaking through all the obstacles?
China is exactly tring to find a way to make a transition to market economy. Yet look at the human suffering and emotional distress, I really doubt this is natural path for which all the common citizens of China would willingly to follow. ... Of course finding your own way is bloody tough, getting somebody else's idea is much more prefered. That's human nature.
I wonder if China in 20 or 30 years will become so preoccupied with western democratic doctrines or a total capitalist society that big corporations control every aspects of social life, put a little salt of communist, or whatever become then, authoritarian system. Polarization of wealth become so severe that government do whatever it can to glorify the riches. Social justice become entertaining isssue, government become corporations' agency.
I myself is an architect. I can design building for a comfort living. But I can't design social structure that will let all human live comfortably. I am sad because my gutt feeling is blaiming myself as incapable professional.
David Chen
nyc, ny
FRONTLINE's editors respond:
In the "Democracy" section of this web site you can read a discussion by experts on the prospects for democracy and other questions raised by the letter writer.
Dear FRONTLINE,
I hope there will be more unbiased portral of China like this in the future.
I grew up in a huge state-own factory in South China, went to Beijing for college, and then came to the United States for grad study. These have been big jumps in my life. The factory my parents worked for almost crashed down several years ago. My dad, 58 years old, lost his job with little compensation when my mom have been retired for several years. My sister, after a long-time argument with my parents, quitted her "steady work" with meager salary and left our hometown to look for jobs in another city. There are still stories going on in my family as well as millions of other Chinese families.
I appreaciate your excellent job in displaying life of ordinary people like my family and many of my freinds! I see the reforms and changes positively, while at the same time, I totally understand the painful experiences of many individuals in surviving or just adjusting to the dramatic transformations in every aspects of their life.
Anna Liu
los angeles, ca
Dear FRONTLINE,
What an incredible feat! I am a movie producer and my husband is a film editor. We enjoyed every moment of footage. We just returned from China about 3 mos. ago with our little girl who is the light of our lives. We watched your program with her sleeping peacefully in our arms. We wondered who her parents were, what was their situation? Did they abandon her because they could now afford to have children or because she was a girl? Were they peasants or from the city? Thank you for taking us past the concrete walls of the apartment buildings and inside the homes of people just like our daughter's biological family. It makes us feel closer to her and closer to her complex and beautiful birthplace of China. It also underscored a much treasure saying in the Chinese adoption community: Yi Nu Ping An "One child, peaceful and safe"
Danielle Lovett
los angeles, ca
Dear FRONTLINE,
The film was wonderful and I hope many in the US will appreciate our education program. Just about every parent was concerned about paying for their child's education.
My heart goes out to the daughter of the woman in Chestnut Flower Village who had to leave school because of her mother's illness. She just looked so broken. I made a vow last night that I will do what ever I can to put this girl through school. Eating $25 less a month is where I plan to start. I hope many others will give when a fund is set up here.
J manago
chandler, az
Dear FRONTLINE,
This is the best and most real picture about china.
Thanks for the contribution from the team.
Is it possible to have a video available?
Yong xie
tucson, az
FRONTLINE's editors respond:
The full program can be viewed online here on the web site.
Dear FRONTLINE,
Well PBS have done it again.
Frontline has to be the best programe on tv,a ll the stories are so inetrseting and i look forward to every thursday. Last night on China was one of the best documentaries i have every seen, as good as the BBC and CBC.
Brilliant.
Keep up the great work.
floyd gadd
st louis, mo
Dear FRONTLINE,
I am still unable to take the images of people interviewed from my mind. The steel factory worker, the lady with thyroid problem, the son who goes to the city to learn refrigration - to me their facial expression conveyed more than their words. I thank the folks behind "Frontline" for this excellent piece of work.
In mathematics, we have the concept of "necessary and sufficient". Evidently, for long-term irreversible kind of growth, it is "necessary" that there is political reform in China. Unless, there is transparent (corruption-free), plurastic and grass-root level democracy in China, the divide between rich and poor will just increase and the current economic growth may not be sustainable.
Compartively speaking, India has a functioning democratic system with high penetration level right into villages ("panchyat system"), unfortunately, highly-corrupt at the same time. Nonetheless, the growth in India seems to be of organic nature - slow and steady. More like an "elephant" as oppossed to "roaring tiger". More of "brick-and-mortar" variety versus "dot-commish" bubble.
Naren Chawla
fremont, ca
Dear FRONTLINE,
China in the Red was certainly an ambitious project and you suceeded in providing a glimpse of common citizens going through this cataclysmic change.
However, I do feel your focus on only the two extreme ends of the economic spectrum showed an incomplete portrayal of the people of China. For example, you ignorned the burgeoning middle class or even lower middle class who are responsible for much of the economic growth. To only use Mr. Zhang Wu as the example of a benefactor of the economic change is a disservice, bordering on bias.
Dai-Shan Wong
houston, tx更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net