China: 60 years in facts and figures

[David__77]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8283546.stm

Key highlights:

1950-1955:
male life expectancy - 39
female life expectancy - 42

2000-2005:
male life expectancy - 71
female life expectancy - 75

Literacy has increased from 20% in 1949 to 96% in 2005.

GDP per capita has increased from $17 in 1952 to $3,388 in 2008.

[Better Believe It]

1. Damn "commie" propaganda!

:)

[Brickbat]

2. Check your sig line.

Forced abortions kinda put the lie to the whole thing, don't they?

[David__77]

3. It's a quote from Karl Marx.

The position of women in China is immeasurably better than before the Chinese Revolution.

[Brickbat]

5. Yep, I know the quote.

It's people like you who take the promise of what Marx and Lenin said and wreck it.

[David__77]

7. You're inferring quite a bit, unfairly.

I am not endorsing anything, simply pointing out objective facts with regard to the social position of Chinese people. I do not let my ideology cloud my objective analysis. I disagree with the Chinese government ideologically wholeheartedly.

[Forkboy]

4. It's a fascinating country, to be sure.

In both good and bad ways. And isn't their GDP growing at something like 11% a year (as compared to the 2% or 3% here)?

China will most likely become the dominant superpower of this century, so we would be wise to learn as much as we can.

[tuckessee]

6. I guess they couldn't count high enough to tally those murdered....

...in the twenty year collectivization and ethnic cleansing period that followed the Revolution. (Hint- It's well over 10 million. Could even be 20 million or more)

[Better Believe It]

8. We had slavery until the civil war so the American revolution shouldn't be celebrated.

That's the logic of your position regarding past oppression under Maoism. Right?

Do you know anything at all about American history and the many crimes, human rights abuses and outright genocide that have occurred during that history.

I'm aware of that history, but I still celebrate the American revolution for independence.

I'm also aware of Chinese history. This is 2009, not 1959 or 1979. Things are changing and improving in China. It's just a question of time. The Chinese youth, women and growing urban working class will bring about a real democratization of China, something far more democratic than anything we have seen in the United States.

[madeline_con]

11. I'll bet they don't light up shit on OUR anniversary. n/t

[David__77]

9. Many countries have a bloody period after their birth, the US included.

The Civil War and the extermination of indigenous peoples are one example. This does not excuse anything, but it is a fact. The US can be proud of its achievements despite that past, just as China can be.

[Better Believe It]

10. And China will not return to that past.

[closeupready]

18. Let's not talk about those minor issues.

With a billion people, 20 million represents only 2%.

Let's talk instead about how much money we can make moving factories there, how much pollution we need not worry about spewing into the air and water, ... k?

:sarcasm:

[Nikki Stone1]

12. Are you supporting communism or crony capitalism? Either is possible with China.

Thomas Friedman loves China because the market is free and the people are not.

[David__77]

13. I'm not "supporting" either.

I am merely pointing out certain facts about China's development since the founding of the republic. I have a different worldview than China's ruling party.

[Nikki Stone1]

14. It would be interesting to put up the US figures over the same stretch of time.

///

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Don't forget the Great Leap Forwards

I figure I'd add this...

But some of their advancements are going to go down in some ways... as they adopt more and more corporatist ways.

[Better Believe It]

16. That happened before their turn toward government managed capitalism

[armyowalgreens]

17. It's still a police state that has murdered millions of it's civilians over the years.

[Warren Stupidity]

19. We are pretty close to a police state

and we have murdered millions of other countries civilians over the same period of time. I'm not fond of either system. China has morphed from stalinist idiocy to corporatist fascism, using totalitarianism as the common element, while we have morphed into a stunningly aggressive and corrupt kleptocracy.

[armyowalgreens]

21. No. We are nowhere near being a police state.

[Warren Stupidity]

23. keep telling yourself that.

[Orsino]

24. I can see it from here. n/t

[robcon]

20. 23 million people killed by Mao (quoted from a mostly favorable biography.)

n/t

[anonymous171]

22. Capitalism sure has helped China.

Sorry, I may be a far lefty, but I am in no way a commie sympathizer.