Also well said. Sadly a lot of people believe what they see and assume that the entire country is the way that they portray in a single photo even though it's just a small and isolated area, but people see that and just assume the whole damn country is like that.

I don't think people understand how large China really is... It's HUUUUUUUUGE and has many faces, those industrial slums account for probably less then a 1/10 of 1 percent, but it's all people see and they assume the whole country is like that which is a shame.


Kinda off topic, did you guys know that in Chinese airports they have signs that say "Death penalty to those caught with drugs", and they mean it! Did you also know that in some part of China they have an "execution van" which will go to someone's house, try them in the car, if they are found guilty they will be put to death right there in the van!!! I didn't believe this at first but turns out it's true and here's a pic of the execution van!

Link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_van

Pic:




It's really screwed up and any country that could do something like that is just screwed up on the highest level (not saying the people are screwed up, saying the govt is). Lots of people oppose this but can't do a damn thing about it.

It's crazy how the people are tried inside the van by a pseudo court, and put to death right after...


Some think this is fake, but it's not... It's China after all, not the USA or Europe.

PS: What does it say on the side of that van?

 

Right, like the RWB never dumped or polluted... Industrial Revolution anyone?

 

I agree with Jansen, You cannot judge based on pictures. Sure, they've done some awful things. But most people I know who are there or travel there frequently have all said it's NOT as bad as the west puts it, but it's not all that gravy either. And yes, they do censor like crazy, but otherwise it's a pretty great place and they are working to clean up their pollution.

No industrialized nation is without their blood.

 

This

 

Actually, do some googin... The WTO has even overturned OUR own environmental laws, like the ban on dragnet fisihing in hawaii that was killing thousands of sea turtles. They (WTO) claimed it was a non-tarrif barrier to trade. But what do I know, I only got a degree in Foreign Policy and economics...

 

The point is which countries have blood on their hands NOW. No sense in continually saying that historically, all countries have oppressed their people blah blah blah. As if our own past forbids us to condemn the oppressive current actions of other countries.

If the government of other countries are making their people suffer, then we should not be borrowing their money. Besides, we shouldn't be borrowing any country's money in the first place, but that's another discussion.

 

Another discussion indeed. But the US does not embargo itself.. lol. We are addicted, and unable to stop.

But in terms of bloodshed, I mean it as truth, and necessity. History shows you cannot force and acclerate industrialization without it. Rapid expansion has called for it in every country or nation in the past. Sure you can call for a change, you can protest for a bloodless expanse, but it won't happen cause that would be the rate of growth is slower... it's hindered by the human life.

China has so far spent, pushed, destroyed and created its way to what I feel is the ultimate super power status already. They have the ball in their court and they are up by 30pts already... There is only 2mins left in the game.

We are on the sideline now, watching our defeat.

China is laying down the infrastructure that we should have laid down when we could have back in the 50s... Huge networks of roadways, high speed rail, electrical grid, power plants, water supply. They are going to do it once, do it big, and the country will be up to speed and 1st world fast. There is nothing stopping them. Even if we die and whiter away and cannot buy their stuff... they have themselves. One day the Chinese consumer will rise, and the world is going to cater to him/her.

 

Imho

 

法院 means "Court of Law".

To play the devil's advocate, one should remember that China is much more lawless than many first-world countries due to widespread corruption and the paradox of ineffective yet overly harsh government.

What I mean by this is that the Chinese government is so large and convoluted that it cannot even keep its own local officials in check, and these local officials are often nothing more than criminals who have either bought or muscled their way into local government. This is especially prevalent in the rural parts of China, far away from major seats of government like Beijing or major cities where the Communist Party's Central Politburo can exert more control more easily over local governance. These thugs are then able to do as they wish through a combination of bribes and violence while claiming that their actions are "good Maoist practice" when in reality there is no sanction by the Central Politburo that's too far away to even realize what the hell's going on a few thousand miles away. This is all similar to how KKK members have managed to become local government officials in more backwater parts of our own United States and have gotten away with some despicable acts.

The paradox that I mentioned is that the Central Politburo has recently come to realize (admit?) how lawless and corrupt many people have become, and so the Politburo thinks that the harshest measures possible are the key to solving widespread crime. This is a mistake as it has made many criminals take on a "Devil may care" attitude since they feel that they are going to receive the death sentence regardless of whether they embezzle or outright murder someone; thus, they feel that they might as well murder since they will have to die anyway.

Because so many crimes are now punishable by death, China has resorted to the death vans as a more "humane" way of execution versus their old favorite: an Kalashnikov to the back of the head. One thing should be clear: criminal are not tried in the vans; criminals still have their day in court (I won't address the quality of due process in China as I honestly don't know how legit it is).

So as you can see, because China's political infrastructure is in such shambles, the government is failing its citizens due to a mix of disorganization, incompetence, and wrong assumptions. But in retrospect, China's last 200 years have been absolutely crappy due to the tide of history: from modern times on back, we have the genocide known ironically as the Great Leap Forward, the destruction of Chinese culture known as the Cultural Revolution, the corruption of the Kuomintang, destruction of the nation by the Japanese during WWII, the incompetence of the Qing Dynasty, the rape of China by the Eight Nation Alliance, the upheaval of the Taiping Rebellion, the bullying of the Opium Wars, the list goes on. Is it any wonder that Mainland China is in the shape it's in?

 

I agree. The Western World and its leading "city upon a hill," the US, is in rapid decline. We can only hope that the same issues that currently plague our society will soon hit theirs, so that they don't stay at the pinnacle long enough to devour us completely. They and the Islamic fundamentalists are arguably the biggest external threats to our current way of life. Yet, we are our own worst enemy.

 

The whole point is to save money by not sending the people to Bejing for death, but they still have to buy that van and pay people to drive it, etc, and they have to pay for the poison. The AK to the head is not only painless, but it costs about a penny per round in China. They would save a lot of money and the people would die instantly and not even hear the gunshot go off. I actually think that a round to the head is more human as it's quick and you don't know when it;s coming, and it can happen anywhere. With the death van they have to inject a person witth poison and that person has to wait a min or more with the poison running through their veins, and though they aren't suffering though pain, they are suffering MAJORLY psychologically for those couple of mins where they know that the poison is running through their veins. I'd much rather a bullet through my head when I wasn't expecting it then to get some lethal injection where you have to wait to die and suffer majorly while the poison does what it does.

Does that make sense? Sorry, I typed this on my itouch and its hard to see.

The death van is a totally flawed way of exterminating people, not cost effective at all, and not as human as they think it is. Just because you don't feel physical pain doesn't mean you wont feel mental pain! A gunshot to the head = fast, cheap, and has the least amount of suffering... As always, the Chinese gov't does something totally *** backwards in order to screw their citizens Man, I feel so bad for the people that are oppressed by PRC... It's so frustrating to watch people suffer through that kind of crap. Perhaps the reason I hate China's gov't so damn much is because it reminds me of the former Yugoslavia, the communist county that did the unthinkable when Slovenia and Croatia tried to gain their independence (because before WWII Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, and Serbia were all countries, but thanks to the soviet empire Serbia took absolute power over the new country Yugoslavia (that combined all the mentioned countries). Most people don't even know, but the Serbs created concentration camps just like the ones in WWII for the muslims and Croats... I don't want to get further into this because it will keep me up all night and I'll have anxiety and crap from it, but you get the idea and it's why I hate communism so damn much... Far too many members of my family are burried beucase of that useless system and I'm sure some of you guys are in the same boat as me in that respect so I hope you guys understand why I hate the gov't so damn much..

One of our Chinese members here called me out as being a racist against Chinese people a few weeks back which is totally bogus, hell, even my screen name is "brucelee"! I have a lot of respect for Chinese people and have many, many friends of chinese decent... My only problem lies with the gov't, and I'm sure many of you agree with me, but does that make you a racist? Hell no it doesn't.

I hate when people pull the race card on everything and anything.... It's so damn lame and really make the person who is accusing whomever for being racist look very "simple" and close minded. I hope that person has a better understanding of my views instead of just bashing the hell out of me and accusing me of hating all chinese people, their culture, and everything else which was totally bunk... I hate all communist gov't, and that doesn't stop with China.

 

Mutant Catfish?

 

Good point about the death vans. I guess the only other explanation would be that it's much "cleaner" than having someone's brain splayed out all over the ground

But yeah, seriously, screw the Socialists and screw Mao, the most evil Chinese man who ever lived.

 

I heard he was pretty dirty too. Never brushed his teeth or bathed. Said that he cleaned his body through sex with virgins.

disclosure: The above is all hearsay from a coworker from the mainland that hated him too.

 

They said he liked to swim; does that count as bathing?


But yeah, I've heard about the not brushing the teeth thing and the virgin thing, too.