The Great Mall of China
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China now has the world's largest mall:
Whatever. Does that somehow change the fact that China is a bloodthirsty Communist dictatorship that engages in, inter alia, forced abortions, territorial conquests and threats of future conquest, religious persecution, dissident persecution, emigration lockdowns, organ harvesting from prisoners, restriction of Internet access, trade protectionism, etc., etc. etc.?
More:
Ralph Lauren utilizes Chinese sweatshops -- of course it's going to have a store there! Chanel is, ahem, French. And boy would I like to have been a fly on the wall for those 30 minutes with Wal-Mart!
The fascination over "constructive engagement" with China never ceases to amaze me. Yes, China has nuclear weapons, yes China has lots of people (almost all of whom are subsistence-farm peasants who will never even see a picture of, let alone visit, China's new mall). Yes, China has embraced a market economy -- along a restricted, narrow sliver of its coastline for a select few anointed as a "middle class." And it gets away with all this for no other reason than because the West lets them.
Did we learn nothing from the Cold War? Shouldn't the burden of persuasion be on those who advocate a different approach for China? What have we, or the Chinese people (all of them, not just the elite), gotten from our current accommodative policy?
We got 230 escalators and a skating rink.
Sounds like a bad deal to me.
Hat tip to Marginal Revolution.
Related Post:
Communism Victims Memorial
Another Reason for the War
It takes about two days to explore Beijing's new Golden Resources Shopping Mall -- the world's largest. Minnesota's "Mall of America" is 4 million square feet. Golden Resources, built in an impressive 20 months and opened Oct. 24, is 6 million square feet.
With 230 escalators, more than 1,000 shops, restaurant space the size of two football fields, and a skating rink - the Art Deco mall is a testament in glass and steel to the communist party's desire to create a stable, happy, middle-income consumer class.
Whatever. Does that somehow change the fact that China is a bloodthirsty Communist dictatorship that engages in, inter alia, forced abortions, territorial conquests and threats of future conquest, religious persecution, dissident persecution, emigration lockdowns, organ harvesting from prisoners, restriction of Internet access, trade protectionism, etc., etc. etc.?
More:
Pedigrees run from a Macy's-style department store to shops with names like Ralph Lauren, Papa John's Pizza, and Chanel. (Wal-Mart was invited but negotiations reportedly broke down after 30 minutes.)
Ralph Lauren utilizes Chinese sweatshops -- of course it's going to have a store there! Chanel is, ahem, French. And boy would I like to have been a fly on the wall for those 30 minutes with Wal-Mart!
The fascination over "constructive engagement" with China never ceases to amaze me. Yes, China has nuclear weapons, yes China has lots of people (almost all of whom are subsistence-farm peasants who will never even see a picture of, let alone visit, China's new mall). Yes, China has embraced a market economy -- along a restricted, narrow sliver of its coastline for a select few anointed as a "middle class." And it gets away with all this for no other reason than because the West lets them.
Did we learn nothing from the Cold War? Shouldn't the burden of persuasion be on those who advocate a different approach for China? What have we, or the Chinese people (all of them, not just the elite), gotten from our current accommodative policy?
We got 230 escalators and a skating rink.
Sounds like a bad deal to me.
Hat tip to Marginal Revolution.
Related Post:
Communism Victims Memorial
Another Reason for the War
Posted by KipEsquire on
2 December 2004
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