But what if the real problem with the whole coming out party theory is that Peking's rulers are blinded by seeing their progress only through the prism of their poverty-stricken past? As proud as the Chinese are of their very real progress, when viewed from the West, the vast problems that fester in China are at least as apparent as the glitzy but narrowly focused progress:
There is a nagging feeling in the country that the glittery office towers only reflect a distorted image of China. The fact of the matter is that China remains primarily a rural country, a vast backwater. Anyone who has ever seen how poverty-stricken rice planters in Jiangxi live, or how peasant women in Yunnan eke out a living as they push their wooden carts, night after night, to the flower market in Kunming, will be appalled at the social inequalities and the growing gap between rich and poor that can be witnessed everywhere in China today.
I've never been that impressed with China's progress. At least in the sense of worrying that China is about to leap past us economically. In the end, I'd bet on a break-up within China.
