In my experience, China is a mirror in which people see what they want to see. If you want to see a sinister oppressive juggernaut, you’ll see it. If you want to see a booming cosmopolitan vision-of-the-future, you’ll see it. If you want to see the Brand New Threat to the US, you’ll see it. The mystique and menace of the Orient has been a sure hit since Marco Polo. Everyone who is not busy writing their version of China is eager to consume media that confirm their own visions of China.
For it’s part, China is very good at meeting people’s expectations. The “Democracy is too fussy and messy- what we need is a strong government” obviously suits the government’s purposes, and “China is the development superstar” fits their desire to gain inroads in South East Asia and Africa. These ideas may come out of spontaneous observances, but they are also, at this point, carefully constructed spins.
Look at this author. She seems to be basing this on a visit to a few Asian capitals. That is, of course, like a Chinese guy visiting DC and figuring he’s ready to start making vast generalizations. Many people writing books about China are basing it on a few weeks spent in Shanghai. And China is, in many ways, infinitely more diverse and fractured than the US is.
The standard journalist tour of China is going to be based in the big East Coast cities, which basically operate on a different economic and political system than the rural majority of the country. The writers, perhaps still hearing echos of “there are starving children in China” from their childhood, are surprised to see modern cities where you can get gourmet pizza and dance all night in exclusive clubs (which they are delighted to be ushered to the front of the line for.) Their hosts will set up a dizzying schedule of banquets, visits to stylish company boardrooms, and charming cultural events. Huge piles of food are stuffed into them at every moment. Even impoverished rural schools receive grants from the government to make sure their foreign teachers are well entertained (the enterprising schools, of course, usually pocket it.) Men will be invited to share dirt-cheap beers late in to the night and to sample the local ladies, who often surprising educated and cosmopolitan for the kind of girl who will chat up a ruddy-faced rando at a bar. Female journalists will usually have to content themselves with the inevitable “new best friend” who wants to go shopping and gossip with them. At this point, the journalists are thinking “Wow, this place is pretty darn great. It must be a good place!”
Perhaps they will do a visit to one of China’s myriad “ancient towns” which are fixed up Disneyland style or even a trip to one of their hosts’s or new girlfriend’s ancestral villages, where they can get a glimpse of the poverty but be heartened by people’s generosity. Of course when they return to Shanghai’s neon embrace, they can assure themselves that they now understand the poverty that China is surely quickly eliminating. Sure, there are some poor villages, but look at Shanghai! Maglev trains! Surely this is what the real China is!
These events are surprisingly scripted. I lived two years and was surprised to learn now and what I thought was a spontaneous day trip with a good friend actually went through mysterious levels of approval before I was ever invited. Of course it’s not like the old days and traveller’s have plenty of opportunities to wander free. But sometimes there is more going on than a lazy journalist, fattened up on banquets and sedated with beer and women, is going to see.
Anyway, my point is the basically everything you read about China is wrong, especially if it’s in a new article with a sensationalist headline. Very few people writing about China have any idea what they are talking about.