Just want to point out that JC is a native of Hong Kong, not the mainland. That's about as capitalist as you can get.

Hong Kong is startig to feel the pinch these days. The chinese government took a hands-off approach for a few years but now they're starting to dismantle the democratic institutions that allowed Hong Kong to prosper. You can bet the capitalism will go with it. A free market doesn't survive long under oppressive government.

Q'uest l'angle de TI?

the IT angle? surely any IT professional worth his salt will readily admit to enjoying watching Jackie Chan movies. get a number of tech geeks around a pub table and eventually the conversation will end up discussing the merits of Police Story over Police Story 2

By which you mean, of course, the merits of Police Story 2 over Police Story...

"Lequelle est l'angle d'IT?"

Occasionally Jackie uses or breaks some computers :) I forget now the title, but he _hacks_ a bad guy's account to transfer funds to some charity ...

coat, door, etc

I can no longer see China as a pure communist country. As soon as they relaxed the control over privately own businesses allowing them a profit margin (admittedly slim), they lost their ideal purity.

Not that I blame them. Their economy has been booming ever since. However, I think they are just starting to see the down side of capitalism - the little bit of it that they allow. Back in the 1920's and 30's most of the western world had to deal with business owners trying to increase profits any way they could using any method they could think of to cut costs. A lot of these methods harmed the customers. The recent issues with Chinese export quality seems very similar to that era. China will soon have to create quality and safety laws to deal with the issue. Or they could go back to a pure communist view of business. I'm not sure they can do that any longer without facing an armed revolt. Profit can be very addictive.

Police Story? Nah, it's got to be Drunken Master all the way. Or at the very least Armour of God. Project A was funny....

China is a mob run by a boss.

Capitalism is allowed only to the extent that it makes party bosses rich and does not interfere with exploitation of the worker or with the army.

The PRC has no reason to change due to the greed of the wealthiest 3% in the West propping it up accessing China's slave,prisoner and child labor.

erm methinks you have been sniffing the joss sticks a bit to much my friend. Having spent some time in the industrial areas of China I have seen a remarkable lack of slave,prisoner and child labor working in the Warehouses and factories, or even as part of the vast numbers of manual labourers building roads offices hotels and houses.

However the greedy native companies would risk using slave,prisoner and child labor. Also the vast gap between the have and the have not's does mean you do get sickly looking children virtualy clinging to you begging for money which is a tad annoying as you basicly have to beat them off you and i do mean beat them!! not particualry pleasent thing to do. Give them RMB and they will follow you begging for more with thier buddies i learnt that one the hard way!!

Whether it's "slave" labour or not, the worker's life there is still much worse than in the West, is it? Otherwise why would we be buying everything from there at a bargain price?

By the way, where did you go, Andy? Were you free to travel or did they restrict you to certain places? I'm only asking because I've heard terrible things about the rural areas, but most Westerners only seem to visit the cities.

No flame intended!

I was in Beijing in August for the 2007 Good Luck Beijing games - 7 sports were holding their Olympic test events. At the Beach Volleyball venue, they were playing this continuously in the public areas. I only ever recognised the "we are ready" bits. Quite catchy. Has JC re-recorded it recently or has the world just taken a long time to realise?

"I'm not sure they can do that any longer without facing an armed revolt."

I doubt that wooden pitchforks and rakes would make for a very long revolt against even the relatively poor-quality tanks, AK-47s, and machine guns fielded by the Communist forces against the Chinese citizens already.

Or has the world forgotten 3-4 June, 1989?

http://www.bearpit.net/lofiversion/index.php/t655.html

Err, no, it isn't slave labour. The guys I work with are all smart Chinese grads (including in IT, so there's a Reg angle) and have worked out that for the 7000 RMB a month they get here (about 500 quid) they live like they were on £50K in UK, and have a better chance of making it really big.

And > China will soon have to create quality and safety laws to deal with the issue.< Umm, sorry again, they have these, big time, and people get sent to jail for breaking them. The Mattel fiasco was, it now seems, a MATTEL fiasco....crap specs.

I was in China in '86 as an 'independent' tourist for about 4 months, and you could visit rural areas then - you needed a permit for most places, which took a few days at most in the provincial capital.

There weren't many beggars then; I felt most sorry for the Tibetans; the Chinease peasants were quite obnoxious, I remember people gleefully chucking bottles out of train windows into cramped backyards where a mother sat with a baby.

I used to think Chinese food was great, but in China I became semi-vegetarian after a few weeks - worse food than even the depths of Africa at the time - think chunks of gristle and hair which were supposed to be the 'meat'.

HK used to be nice, now the smog is terrible - I can understand why all the expats are leaving. I was there for a couple of days earlier this month and my eyes were burning.

The answer is the date does not exist here. But wooden pitchforks and rakes? It may come as a shock to you, but China has airlines, TV, cellphones, smart cards, billionaires, KFC, sex shops, online gambling, ATMs, taxis that speak english (sic), subways, skyscrapers, chat shows, free public wifi, five star hotels, rock venues, malls the size of towns, anti-corruption laws, walmart, tesco, IKEA, ......and people own guns.

That date did quite a lot, quietly. And actually, is the US "democracy" (or even the Brownian mendacity) really what you'd expect them to want? Not right now buddy.

Get a clue before you spout your crap. HK never had much "democratic" institutions to start with. Chris Patten tried to introduce universal sufferage as a "poisoned pill" but the Chinese were having none of it. After all Britain had 150 years in which to implement democracy in HK but only chose to do so when Maggie Thatcher's dreams of wanting to keep HK (Island) were shattered. Truth is that HK has more "democracy" now than when under British rule - more seats at the Legislative Council are directed elected than pre-1997.

Anyway HK's trump card is that China's central government does not want and cannot allow HK to "fail", doing so would mean losing face to the barbarians who had ruled HK for much of the last 160 years. Another factor in keeping HK prosperous and successful is that China hopes to entice Taiwan back into the fold.