China’s Deeply Flawed Ascent

choi

George Will, China’s Deeply Flawed Ascent. Washington Post, Jan 20. 2016.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/o ... bceea902_story.html

Quote:

"In the 20th century, the United States made automobiles mass-consumption items, requiring prodigious road building. China, however, poured more concrete for roads and other construction between 2011 and 2013 than the United States did in the 20th century. This fact is emblematic of China’s remarkable success.

"China’s prosperity has been fueled by the traditional modernization trek of people from the countryside to cities — 300 million so far, with another 300 million by 2030.

"The fact that [Henry] Paulson says 'no one seems to know the exact number [of state-owned enterprises in China]' speaks volumes about the disorderly nature of things bubbling beneath China’s still-nasty authoritarianism.

Note:
(a) Mr Will is a conservative columnist with the newspaper.
(b) Henry Paulson's book (Dealing With China) was published in 2016 ("on Sale Date: 04/14/2015")
(c) "Beijing has six ring roads, and the seventh, under construction, will be almost 600 miles long, encompassing an area as large as Indiana. (Washington’s Capital Beltway is 64 miles long.)"

Interstate 495 (Capital Beltway)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_495_(Capital_Beltway)
(map)
(d) "In four years, beginning in 2011, the government built enough housing to shelter the population of the 12th most populous nation, the Philippines."

Philippines population:
"2015 estimate 102,687,100 (12th)
2010 census 92,34 million"  en.wikipedia.org

(e) "China’s per capita GDP, one-eighth that of the United States, ranks 80th in the world, barely ahead of war-ravaged Iraq’s."
(i) CIA World Factbook (as of today): "GDP - per capita (PPP): Iraq $15,300 (2014 est.); China $13,200 (2014 est.)"  (The Factbook does not publish GDP - per capita (nominal or according to foreign exchange rate.)
(ii)
(A) list of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita

...............IMF (2014) ........World Bank  
China ......$13,224 ...........$13,217 (2014)
Iraq ........$15,348 ............$14,951 (2013)

(B) list of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita

...............IMF (2015) ........World Bank (2014) ......United Nations (2014)
China ......$8,280 .............$7,594 ........................$7,617
Iraq ........$4,694 .............$6,432 .........................$6,391

(f) "After the US opening to China, Daniel Patrick Moynihan acerbically said that many travelers to China returned more impressed by the absence of flies than by the absence of freedom."

US Should Improve Relations with India. Pottstown, Pennsylvania: The Mercury, Apr 23, 1976, at page 8/
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/42358579/
("Daniel Patrick Moynihan, our former ambassador to India, said Americans were taken with the era of Peking chic and viewed India through prejudiced lenses. 'Americans visited China and gushed about the absence of flies, but no one talked about the absence of freedom,' Moynihan said. “Americans visiting India dwell on the presence of flies but say little about the presence of freedom, relative to China' ")