One of the things I found most interesting about China when I visited was the degree to which their extended flirtation with trickle-down economics is, predictably, leading to significant inequality. The surface gloss of the growth of Shanghai masks substantial cracks beneath. I found it notable that the line taken there, in the English language press, at least, was that the solutions to inequality and corruption should not be those of the cultural revolution.
The massive corruption seems to me, by the way, to be a marker of continuity. Chinese classical literature is quite clear on the prevalence of corruption in the Imperial days, all that has changed is the dominant ideology.
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