Wal-Mart in China

The Day That Nothing Happened

The deal cut after Tiananmen was shrewd: urban Chinese were offered a path to prosperity in return for staying out of politics. The results are now visible in every Chinese city, most noticeably in those (like Shenzhen and the east of Shanghai) that have sprung up out of nothing in the past twenty years. They are a direct rebuttal to the Reaganite belief that free enterprise opens the way for democracy. So far China has proven that if you can grow fast enough, democracy can wait.

Oh, this might get into politics which should be the other blog. Or maybe not. Sometimes culture, food and politics get all scrambled together like Chinese noodles. Or as he says "What brought down the Berlin Wall, indirectly, was a nation of people hungry for sausage."

Tags: Wal-Mart, China, culture, food, politics