RED DAWN

No! I’m not Chinese or its ardent supporter. It’s just this Country has improved in a very drastic way and I really respect its Government and people. 60 years ago, China was one of the poorest countries in the world, with 60 percent of the population living in poverty and now it’s just 4. Looking at the country today, its achievements have to be considered no less than an economic miracle.

Fifty years ago, as mankind was entering the middle part of the 20th century, the Chinese people, who had already undergone half a century of harsh trials and bloody struggles, finally announced the founding of the New China in the Orient. However, it was a poverty-stricken China riddled with wounds left by a series of invasions. On the ruins of Old China, the hard-working and courageous Chinese people embarked on five decades of development and construction, and achieved result that caught the attention of the world. Today, the poverty-stricken and backward Old China has been transformed into the prosperous and powerful New China.

In the 50 years since the founding of the People's Republic, China's overall industrial production has doubled. From 1998, China's average annual economic growth rate was 9.7 per cent, and the GDP in1998 has reached 950 billion US Dollars putting it in seventh place in the world rankings after the US, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy. In 2006, China abolished the centuries-old agricultural land tax for the country's 800 million farmers. Result: Prosperity of farmers which is directly proportional to prosperity of their nation. While in India they have made many announcements but the ground reality is that in everyday many farmers commit suicide which is very unfortunate. Between 1912 and 1948, Old China had a total of 210,000 college graduates. But, between 1978 and 1998; China trained a total of nearly 20 million college graduates. These are just some stats for people who think that communism is far better than democracy. I mean in India we people literally don’t deserve democracy because we don’t have freedom in either way. Even if we have, we don’t respect it. Communism with a good leadership is far better option if we want to succeed in near future.

THE 20th century is one of earth-shaking changes for China. Thanks to the pioneering work and arduous efforts by the People's Republic of China over the past 50 years, especially over the last 20 years or so since the beginning of reform and opening-up, the overall national strength and the living standards of the people have been improved in no small ways. Now, the Chinese people are advancing with big strides along the path of building socialism with Chinese characteristics. It is our strategic objective to basically realize modernization and build China into a prosperous and strong socialist country with a high degree of democracy and civilization by the middle of the 21st century.

Below are just few of many reforms done by Chinese government in last 50 years:

1. *Over the last 50 years China has become a substantially stronger nation with its people enjoying higher standards of living.

2. *China's GDP reached 7.9553 trillion Yuan (about 964 billion U.S. dollars) in 1998, 50 times that of 1949 (Industry has increased by 381 times, and agriculture, by 20.6 times

3. *The improved national strength enabled China to withstand the sweeping Asian financial crisis, helping it keep its renminbi stable, which has been conducive to the recovery of the Asian economy and to the stability of the world economy.

4. *Rising World Trade Power

5. *In the early 1950s, China had trade relations with only about 60 countries and regions. Its trade partners were mainly the former Soviet Union and other socialist countries, because of the economic blockade by the West. At present, the country's trade partners have increased to 227.

6. *In the early 1950s, China's annual import and export values stood at only several hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars. By 1998, the figure had risen by more than 300 times to hit 323. 9 billion dollars.

7. *China is the world's No.1 largest trade power in 2008, compared to the 32nd in 1978.

8. *The country's foreign exchange reserve, which was a mere 840 million dollars in 1979, soared to 2,399,000 million dollars by August 2009.

9. *People Living Better and Longer

10. *The per capita share of grain, meat, eggs and milk for the Chinese people is, respectively, over 400 kilograms, 50 kilograms, 17 kilograms and 6.6 kilograms.

11. *The rapid economic growth has brought about a much more comfortable life for the Chinese people.

12. *China's urbanization has progressed quickly in the past two decades, due to the reform and opening up policy. Cities have become the backbone of the national economy.

13. *Today the Chinese people have large latitude in choosing jobs - in different units, different cities, or even different countries.

14. *China has been the most rapidly growing economy in the world over the past 25 years. This growth has led to an extraordinary increase in real living standards and to an unprecedented decline in poverty.

15. *China is one of a few countries in the world that have been rapidly increasing their forest cover. It is managing to reduce air and water pollution.

While on the other side all this development has some cost too. The catch is that China has become not just the world's manufacturer but its despoiler, on a scale as monumental as its economic expansion. A fourth of the country is now deserting. More than three-fourths of its forests have disappeared. Each year, uncontrollable underground fires, sometimes triggered by lightning or mining accidents, consume 200 million tons of coal, contributing massively to global warming. A miasma of lead, mercury, sulfur dioxide, and other elements of coal-burning and car exhaust hovers over most Chinese cities. Meanwhile, roughly 70 percent of the world's discarded computers and electronic equipment ends up in China, where it is scavenged for usable parts and then abandoned, polluting soil and groundwater with toxic metals. If unchecked, such devastation will not just put an abrupt end to China's economic growth, but, in concert with other environmentally heedless nations (in particular, the US, India, and Brazil), will cause mortal havoc in societies and ecosystems throughout the world.

China has probably already overtaken the US as the world's leading emitter of CO2, and the country's ecosystems are displaying climate change's consequences: Arid northern China is drying out, the wet south is seeing more and more flooding, and, according to a June 2007 Greenpeace report, 80 percent of the Himalayan glaciers that feed Asia's mightiest rivers could disappear by 2035. Such a development would jeopardize hundreds of millions of people who depend on the rivers for their livelihood.

But the bottom line is that China has been making reforms now and as part of US$498 billion economic stimulus package of November 2008 (the largest in China's history), the government plans to enhance sewage and rubbish treatment facilities and prevent water pollution, accelerate green belt and natural forest planting programs, and increase energy conservation initiatives and pollution control projects.

Still the question remains the same. What are we doing with this country? Yes! We do have freedom but that’s just for writing purpose. Reality check is we have been ruled by two-faced people since a long time. There is a massive amount of inequality in distribution in this country. Poverty ratio, Corruption everything is becoming greater.

We are dealing with deceitful leaders. We are dealing with greedy corporations.

This is not DEMOCRACY!