the discussion session with Dr. Anderson

I just wanted to bring up one point that I made while on the phone with Dr. Anderson after missing the elluminate session. I was thinking about the economy and its role related to culture in these terms- Mao induced the first Cultural Revolution in an effort to give the masses a diverse life experience and therefor a better understanding of it. I told the professor that a new cultural revolution had occured, this time it is at the hands of the economy (due to politics) and the ability to "market" yourself and make a living (since the central writer's association of China no longer pays very well at all and movie producers can't hope to make money unless they get foreign investors at the risk of losing cultural integrity or are banned by the government which still prevents domestic distribution and/or recognition.) I found that to be a rather interesting point.

China's world status

With all that you have learned from these recent reports about China's current internal problems, do you think that its world power status should be reconsidered? Can China successfully overcome these difficulties to achieve such status on the world stage? I do believe that China's world power status should be reconsidered but maybe not for the most obvious reasons. It seems to me that anyone without any regard for interational opinion or "external conflicts" paired with a singular desire for only economic prosperity should be questioned. Furthermore, when the desired economic prosperity doesn't stem from a desire to see your people succeed or a sense of pride for your country but from a fear of political tyranny at the hands of social unrest, more concern develops. You have a people who have no problems pacifying others in the name of being left alone to do what they wish, but then turn around and persecute and threaten a group of people who wish for nothing more than a formal declaration of the independence that have been, in essence, living for the better part of two decades. This fact really bothers me considering the fact that China was a long time victim of Japan's bullying and they seem to have finally reached the long term stability that they had desired for so long. I believe the government is hypocritical and immoral.
I do however have to use this next paragraph to state that I believe that China can overcome the obstacles to take it's place on the world stage only because they have managed to do so thus far, in the face of opposition and some pretty uncertain circumstances. With all of the possibilites for social unrest and all of the taxing issues constantly on the mind's of China's leaders and students and media (i.e. the environment, public health, unemployment) they have still managed to keep on track with the necessary predicted algorithms and raise the per capita successfully. I do not believe though that China will be able to maintain the same rate of success due to the global economy but I feel by that time, China will have taken it's place in the world, and it may be too late. The rest of the world will be sure to feel the effects of an economic collapse just like I am sure they would if the same thing were to happen in the U.S. A large number of countries are very interrelated with imports/exports, and foreign investments so that statement could be made with confidence about the collapse of many countries in relationship to the rest of the world and its economy.

A very scary statement

The last statement made by the Premier was what scared me most about the article. It might seem too vague or general but I believe this sums the entire environmental controversy up. How scary it is.

No need for new China stimulus: stats office adviser
Fri Mar 6, 2009 4:41am EST

(Reuters) - China has no need for a huge new economic stimulus, not least because the government has already taken extra steps to boost growth, the former head of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday. Li Deshui, who still...";
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has no need for a huge new economic stimulus, not least because the government has already taken extra steps to boost growth, the former head of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday.
Li Deshui, who still advises the NBS, said market talk of a package that could be twice as large as the 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) stimulus announced in November was groundless.
Although Wen Jiabao did not announce a second stimulus in his annual address to parliament on Thursday, disappointing overseas investors, the premier did list a series of pro-growth policies that have already been implemented, Li told a news conference.
These included a 500 billion yuan ($73 billion) reduction in the tax burden on firms and individuals; subsidies for affordable housing and for farmers; and help for unemployed migrant workers and college graduates.
"There are so many detailed, feasible measures in Premier Wen's work report. Why are so many people just blind to that?" Li said.
The key risk facing the Chinese economy was slowing external demand, not problems at home, Li said.
But he said China would have no problem hitting the government's goal of 8 percent growth this year and dismissed the possibility that China might ever suffer back-to-back quarters of negative growth.
The economy expanded 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 from a year earlier, a pace that no other country could match, Li noted. "China's economy does not have and will not have a recession," he said.
Nor was China's financial system facing a crisis.
"Our money will not be spent on dealing with bubbles or cleaning up trash like Western countries; our money will be spent exclusively on promoting economic growth," he said.
(Reporting by Zhou Xin; Writing by Alan Wheatley, Editing by Jacqueline Wong))