On October 25, 2009, this Blog was moved to:  
http://learningchina.wordpress.com/

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My wife landed in Seattle in 1984. She was born in China during the Cultural Revolution and was twenty-seven when she arrived in America. She came prepared for the worst with a suitcase full of toilet paper. The state controlled media in China fed the people twenty-seven years of propaganda saying the working class in America was treated like slaves by rich capitalists and were starving. When my wife saw overfed, brightly dressed Americans everywhere she went, she learned the truth.

Fast forward to 1999, my first trip to China. I expected to meet dour people dressed in dull, olive-green uniforms marching in lines like ants. To my surprise, I found the Chinese people as different as my wife found the Americans when she arrived in the United States fifteen years earlier.

Over time, I realized that the mass media in the West, including America, was not reporting an accurate picture of China. That's still true today. Westerners have been and still are being spoon-fed propaganda from a biased Western perspective.

Since 1999, I've traveled to China often. When in China, I don't hear much about the government there. Many Chinese don't watch government TV either. There are choices now. The Chinese people are connecting to the Worldwide Web and will soon outnumber the population of North America on the Internet if it hasn't already happened.

There are a few points to think about before you believe what you read or hear from our media.

1. America is considered the only super power on the earth today.

2. China was a super power for more than two thousand years. During the Han Dynasty, China was more powerful and technologically advanced than the Roman Empire at its strongest. It was the West and Japan that knocked China off its throne starting with the Opium Wars during the 19th century and ending with World War II.

3. This year, China moved past Japan to become the second biggest economy on earth.

4. China moved seven places this year to rank as the 92nd most developed country in the world due to improvements in education as well as income levels and life expectancy. This ranking comes from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) index that ranks 182 countries.

5. The United States dropped one rank to the 13th spot.

6. China has several hundred nuclear weapons and the largest army on earth close in size to that of the United States. They are modernizing their navy and air force and America is selling them advanced technology to do it.

7. China owns more than one trillion in U.S. debt, and is investing several hundred billion dollars in US companies annually.

8. China is considered the "factory floor of the world".

9. The Chinese tend to work harder, longer hours for less and save more than people from other countries do.    

What is your image of China?

Part two next week.