[iliketosleep]

1.4 billion educated people? China has made great progress in the area of education, but there is still a large percentage, especially from older generations and in rural areas, who never had any real educational opportunities (as you know, they were too busy fighting for survival).

Also, given that the current leadership is taking a very different path that that of Deng, why are you so optimistic that China's rise will continue? From my perspective, they seem to be alienating themselves once again, and straying from path to prosperity originally set by Deng.

[qd6pwu4]

1.4 may not be accurate, but nearly every child is educated. 9-year compulsory education is the lowest standard across the country. The number fighting for survival is very small compared to the whole population (the recent number is 20 million). Now the government's poverty line is <400$ annual income, and the gov has the goal to eliminate this absolute poverty in 2020. The current path is different from the last 30 years, but Deng's reform has never changed. In some area, censorship is more strict (this has to do with complicated political reasons), but in more areas such as science, technology, trade, and finance, China is becoming more and more open to the world. Things may seem that Chinese are alienating themselves, but that is not true. More and more people go abroad every year. And although there is the wall, actually people know what happens outside China.

[dmix]

People tend to significantly overvalue the executive branches power combined with the worst cases you hear in the news when evaluating the freedom of the average person in a country. The economic freedom indexes can be quite surprising compared to popular perception.

But still I read something like 1 in 4 people are party members whether directly or indirectly. That’s a whole lot of people directly involved in the snitch line.

[qd6pwu4]

there are 90 million party members among 1.4 billion people. I don't know how to count indirect party members. But I don't think that is near 1/4, that's too exagerating

[dmix]

I remember that stat from Evan Osnos book on China (a New Yorker journalist). It was between direct members, soldiers, student groups, workers groups, various retired people, and affiliate associations.

I’m sure that number is a bit inflated but the reach of the party at the local and individual level is quite significant.