IntnsRed

A XP from worldpolitics:

China's economic development is to me very startling and impressive. They have bad pollution as a result of massive industrialization, but they seem to be starting to address that.

My question to you Kevin is 2-fold:

1. To your knowledge, how does China's industrialization and development compare to other (obviously smaller) countries over the past few decades?

Are there comparable (again, obviously smaller countries compared to huge China) countries that have developed as fast as China under its communist party?

2. Is China addressing its massive pollution problems?

I'm old enough to remember when the US Great Lakes used to literally catch on fire because they were so polluted; but today in comparison the US Great Lakes are cleaner. Is China following a similar path? In other words, is China making substantial headway on addressing its pollution problems?

The examples you gave of dramatic economic growth are interesting. They don't speak well for democracy I'm afraid.

Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan

All 3 benefited from US Cold War-era preferential trade deals. (Whereas China and Vietnam most certainly did not enjoy such a benefit.)

Though Japan technically has multiple political parties, in reality it's a de-facto one-party state. (With one lone exception, only 1 party has won elections and controlled the gov't in Japan since WWII.)

South Korea was a literal US-backed dictatorship until Korean workers and students heroically overthrew the dictatorship (over US support for the dictator) in the 1980s. Taiwan also didn't become what we would consider a democracy until the 1980s.

And, of course, Vietnam is a one-party state, like China, ruled by a communist party. And Vietnam had to overcome the brutal US war on Vietnam that killed millions and Vietnam still suffers from environmental devastation and chemical warfare that we inflicted on the country.