Typo: the Tree Represents above should be the Three Represents, in Jian Zemin's own words, as
"Represents advanced social productive forces" = Economic production
"Represents the progressive course of China's advanced culture" = Cultural development
"Represents the fundamental interests of the majority" = Political consensus

It just occured to me that most of the slogans the Chinese government made over the years were meant to be correcting their own misdeeds. Slogans like the Great Leap (meant for industrialize their low productivity mind), the Pass Britan in 5 Years Catch US in 10 Years (after they were heavily defeated technologically in the Korean War), the Demolish 4 Olds (meant for destroying the old stuffs, including the triditional values and antiques, only to save their face for not doing something new), and the infamous Culture Revolution (meant for distracting people from scrutinizing the fail system and to hide their bloody internal power struggles), the One Child Policy (after artificially promoting child births to prepare for the human capital into wars with the west), the Reform and Open (only after they realize years of neglet resulted in a dead end, notibally, the slum in moraels), the Chinese Style Communism (basically, turn whole bunch people into low wages slaves for the good of giving some smarter people a chance to move onto the middle class to relieve them from rebeling and to enrich their depleted treatury), the Tree Represents (only they really did not represent anybody and to cover their trails of authoritarianship) and now the Hamonious Society (after years of robbing Peter to pay Paul).

I read James Mann's new book about a month ago, I was dispointed, the analysis is too generalized, and the tone of the author suggests a mixed feeling - hopeless, panic, even threatening.

And Communism exists in China? Well the name , at least!

And by the way, Communism was invented by a German living in England and first adopted in Russia. By that count, it should be just as un-Chinese as democracy.

India has over 1 billion people, is a unique Eastern culture, has a mind of its own, is poor, has many problems to overcome, but is also a democracy. It's not a perfect democracy, granted, but it has lasted over fifty years. I don't see many people arguing that authoritarianism would be better for India. Why should it be different for China?

I don't know, to me it sounds like some sort of weird reverse-racism, when I hear Chinese people saying that we Chinese do not need democracy, that we do not deserve it, that we are too irresponsible for it. Because if the West favours something, we must automatically do the complete opposite just to prove we are "different". But then you are letting the West define the East. I don't see why democracy can't be Eastern too.

I agree with all the comments here. It is easy to use western standards to criticize another country, including China. China and its development should be viewed in the context of its own history and development. China doesn't exist to serve western countries, western ideologies or western economy. From outside, I also hope China will develop into a democratic system ruled by laws with strong middle class, but I also know that from inside China's problems are hudge--poverty, population, environment to name a few. Only time will tell what will happen to China in the long run. But for all the westerners from outside to make any criticisms are easy because we only need to open our mouths. Many of self-righteous criticisms from the west are meaningless because they don't contribute anything but create noises that can be misleading. To make a simple example, many American media still view China from the lense of cold world era. But, how can we consider a country as our enemy when whose well-being is extensively and directly linked to our economy through imports, investments and our Treasures? It is just absurd.

I agree with all the comments here. It is easy to use western standards to criticize another country, including China. China and its development should be viewed in the context of its own history and development. China doesn't exist to serve western countries, western ideologies or western economy. From outside, I also hope China will develop into a democratic system ruled by laws with strong middle class, but I also know that from inside China's problems are hudge--poverty, population, environment to name a few. Only time will tell what will happen to China in the long run. But for all the westerners from outside to make any criticisms are easy because we only need to open our mouths. Many of self-righteous criticisms from the west are meaningless because they don't contribute anything but create noises that can be misleading. To make a simple example, many American media still view China from the lense of cold world era. But, how can we consider a country as our enemy when whose well-being is extensively and directly linked to our economy through imports, investments and our Treasures? It is just absurd.

I agree with all the comments here. It is easy to use western standards to criticize another country, including China. China and its development should be viewed in the context of its own history and development. China doesn't exist to serve western countries, western ideologies or western economy. From outside, I also hope China will develop into a democratic system ruled by laws with strong middle class, but I also know that from inside China's problems are hudge--poverty, population, environment to name a few. Only time will tell what will happen to China in the long run. But for all the westerners from outside to make any criticisms are easy because we only need to open our mouths. Many of self-righteous criticisms from the west are meaningless because they don't contribute anything but create noises that can be misleading. To make a simple example, many American media still view China from the lense of cold world era. But, how can we consider a country as our enemy when whose well-being is extensively and directly linked to our economy through imports, investments and our Treasures? It is just absurd.

I agree with James Mann and Kin-ming Liu. The communist government is a disaster for the people because they are the ticks that keep on sucking up the blood and fat up at the expense of the host.

Anyone in the western world know how to feed, house, provide job for 1.3 BILLION people? If you know please contact the Chinese government. Meanwhile please, the author, stop living in your fancy mafia-cracy world.

LOL, from your name it can tell that you grew up in Hongkong and knows little Chinese mindset.

What is "The Chinese are allowed to live in a parallel universe where ordinary rules and standards simply don't apply"?

Chinese earn that themselves, they don't need anybodies to tell them how to live.

Why anyone fails to recognize that China is special is just beyond me. You’ve got any answer to China’s problems? Forced abortion for example, think about the population explosion; environment? Just think about mass unemployment? Democracy? What exactly do you mean? one man one vote? It had been tried before and we know what happened.
Strangely enough, anyone can criticize everything in China as he or she wants, but at this moment, the most competent operators are the communists when it comes to managing China’s problems. China is too big for any experiment to fail and I don’t know exactly what you want the western governments do in dealing with China. Imposing sanctions against China if her human rights fail to improve? Yes it might work as far as getting rid of the communist government is concerned, but who replaces them? The Falun Gong? Give me a break. In the process, people may die, civil war may unfold. If you think this is the price to pay for democracy, a lot of people will disagree. No one should put any ideology, democracy included, over human lives. Otherwise you are no different from Mao, Hitler and Bin Laden.
As far as the universal coverage is concerned, you must realize HK is now part of China and things will have to be looked at and dealt with in that context. Yes it’s 2 systems, but 1 country comes first. It’s just reality, it’s national interest. When HK was a British colony, the British policy regarding HK was never far removed from the British national interest either. As far as I am concerned, those crying for immediate universal coverage are just bunch of spoiled brats who really think they deserve the kind of life in HK because …, I don’t know why they deserve that considering the people in western China are living with less than $1 a day and those people are certainly not less smart and less hard working than those brats in HK. Try living like them and see if universal coverage is still your priority.

Why anyone fails to recognize that China is special is just beyond me. You’ve got any answer to China’s problems? Forced abortion for example, think about the population explosion; environment? Just think about mass unemployment? Democracy? What exactly do you mean? one man one vote? It had been tried before and we know what happened.
Strangely enough, anyone can criticize everything in China as he or she wants, but at this moment, the most competent operators are the communists when it comes to managing China’s problems. China is too big for any experiment to fail and I don’t know exactly what you want the western governments do in dealing with China. Imposing sanctions against China if her human rights fail to improve? Yes it might work as far as getting rid of the communist government is concerned, but who replaces them? The Falun Gong? Give me a break. In the process, people may die, civil war may unfold. If you think this is the price to pay for democracy, a lot of people will disagree. No one should put any ideology, democracy included, over human lives. Otherwise you are no different from Mao, Hitler and Bin Laden.
As far as the universal coverage is concerned, you must realize HK is now part of China and things will have to be looked at and dealt with in that context. Yes it’s 2 systems, but 1 country comes first. It’s just reality, it’s national interest. When HK was a British colony, the British policy regarding HK was never far removed from the British national interest either. As far as I am concerned, those crying for immediate universal coverage are just bunch of spoiled brats who really think they deserve the kind of life in HK because …, I don’t know why they deserve that considering the people in western China are living with less than $1 a day and those people are certainly not less smart and less hard working than those brats in HK. Try living like them and see if universal coverage is still your priority.