China’s Megatrends by John & Doris Naisbitt
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Book Summary:
Naisbitt, author of the 1982 bestseller Megatrends—an analysis of the economic, political, social and cultural transition taking place in the U.S.—collaborates with his wife and turns his focus to our competitor to the east. Why, the authors ask, has autocratic China succeeded while many democratically governed states have failed to make economic progress?
Our Cocktail Party Statements:
Aaron: Economic & social analysis of China
Karin: A spoonful of sugar helps the Communism go down
Phil: The feelgood China book of the year
Jordan: The 8 pillars of the Chinese sugar cube are ready for a melt down
Update!
Since the airing of our show, Jordan has found a new home in Shanghai. And as Phil so smartly pointed out, this book was likely written as pure propaganda at the behest of the current communist party. Jordan was able to validate this belief by finding a copy at a bookstore in the Shanghai Pudong Airport. Listen now to understand why this book retails for $27.99 yet sells for over $50 in China.
Our Cocktail Party Index:
What’s this? Explanation of the CPI.
2 comments
Jim Batterson says:
Oct 14, 2011
I am sitting here in China listening to to your report on China Megatrends. You make the assertion that one would not be able to listen to this report in China. You missed that one.
Although your observations are true about human rights abuses in China and there have been some disasters from “central planning” – it is also true that most of the people are satisfied living in a country with increasing levels of prosperity. If there were an election today, I believe the Communist party would win broadly.
Jordan H says:
Oct 27, 2011
Hello Jim,
Interesting observations yourself.
I suppose we will never know about that election thing, considering it won’t happen.
And it may be true that “most” are satisfied, however it remains a tad unfortunate that reality is quickly catching up here.
The Economist (quoting the Chinese press Shanghai Daily) recently discussed how cash flows are keeping people from being paid. Are these migrant workers enjoying prosperity? http://econ.st/tHegNz
Or maybe it’s more troubling that there are staged Good Samaritan publicity stunts due to the overwhelming global response to the Wang Yue incident. http://bit.ly/s8CRXi
Perhaps we should point to the rising number of public incidents in China, with public dissatisfaction continuing to increase. (This is older data, but from the MPS in China for illustrative purposes.) http://bit.ly/uzmFLc
The key point I hoped to make in our discussion was that all is not as well as it seems. Progress at the price of humanity may not be progress at all. In living here I have observed that people are generally only interested in their individual lives as there is not much they can control past that.
The next 5-10 years will certainly be interesting.
Thanks for listening.
P.S. Did you buy a copy of the book? I’ve now seen it on a couple of the street book carts- could have had a copy for 50RMB.