Wednesday 3 October 2012

CHINA’S DREAM

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WHY CHINA NEEDS ITS OWN DREAM FOR EMERGING MIDDLE CLASS

Thomas L Friedman

The Economic Times, October 3, 2012

On Nov. 8, China is set to hold the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party. We already know who will be the next party leader: Vice President Xi XInping. What we don't know is what matters: Does Xi have a "Chinese Dream" that is different from the "American Dream?" Because if Xi's dream for China's emerging middle class - 300 million people expected to grow to 800 million by 2025- is just like the American Dream (a big car, a big house and Big Macs for all) then we need another planet.

Spend a week in China and you'll see why. Here's a Shanghai Daily headline from Sept. 7: "City Warned of Water Resource Shortage." The article said: "Shanghai may face a shortage of water resources if the population continues to soar. . . . The current capacity of the city's water supply was about 16 million tons per day, which is able to cover the demand of 26 million people. However, once the population reaches 30 million, the demand would rise to 18 million tons per day, exceeding the current capacity." Shanghai will hit 30 million in about seven years!

"Success in the 'American Dream,"' notes Peggy Liu, the founder of the Joint U.S.-China Collaboration on Clean Energy, or Juccce, "used to just mean a house, a family of four and two cars, but now it's escalated to conspicuous consumption as epitomized by Kim Kardashian. China simply cannot follow that path - or the planet will be stripped bareof natural resources to make all that the Chinese consumers want to consume."

(...) [artículo aquí]

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