Tag: civilization

Superlative Facts About China

On By Paul1 Comment

Superlative Facts About China

By Paul Chong

great-wall-china-2.jpgThe Ancient Great Wall of China

The Sleeping Dragon which Napoleon feared to rouse has finally emerged on the world stage & these facts will astound you:

The People’s Republic of China (comprises China, Hong Kong & Macau) with a teeming population of 1.3 billion is made up of 55 ethnic groups. Tibet is included as represented by one of the stars in the National Flag. It’s an ancient civilization & now

an ultra modern economy.

  • If the Chinese were to march past you 8-abreast, the line of parade will never end (because of reproduction).

  • For every living person on earth, one lives in China.

  • Never in the recorded history of mankind has the world seen such phenomenal industrial growth – an average of 8% over the last 30 years.

  • Coupled with this, growing simultaneously is the rate of urbanization never before happened in Europe or America or anywhere else. China is building a city of equivalent size to Sydney or Birmingham every 60- days.

    01 New Pudong panorama view with Huangpu river_thumb.jpg Pudong-Shanghai Skyline

  • A China with virtually no phone now possesses the single largest mobile network in the world. By the end of 2007, China had 370 million fixed-line subscribers and 530 million mobile subscribers.

  • Mandarin is by far the single largest spoken language & will supercede English globally. It is the official & unifying language.

  • The number of Chinese millionaires & the expanding middle class is swelling each day & fleeing the countryside for the big cities pushing up demand for everything . . . from American food . . . to modern housing . . . to Rolls-Royce Phantoms through the roof!

  • China is building at a frenzy speed . . . unstoppable despite the global economic downturn – perhaps now at a slower pace. Now China has the biggest, tallest, speediest of whatever nameable.

  • China is a unified, multi-national country, comprising 55 other minorities. The Han people make up 91.02 percent of the total population, leaving 8.98 percent for the other 55 ethnic minorities.

  • The yearly average net increase of population: 12.79 million.

  • Total Number of Military Service Personnel: 2.5 million.

  • The most populated administrative region: Henan Province (92.56 million).

  • The least populated administrative region: Tibet (Xizang) Autonomous Region (2.62 million).

  • It’s claimed that the only man-made structure visible from outer space is The Great Wall of China.

  • China said the number of Internet users in the country reached about 253 million (February 2009), helping China overtake the United States as the world’s biggest Internet market.

  • China is not communist – except for the political system.

  • China is BIG & there are 6,536 islands larger than 500 square meters, the largest is Taiwan, with a total area of about 36,000 square kilometers, and the second, Hainan. The South China Sea Islands are the southernmost island group of China.

  • The Chinese are known to be most assiduous in their economic pursuits, innovative & inventive – just that many went by unpublicised.

For example: a flush toilet was found in a tomb of a Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C. to A.D. 24) king — and they invented toilet paper in the 6th century.

Paul Chong

A Chinese by Descent

An Australian by Consent

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Western Democratic Imperialism

On By Paul4 Comments

Double Rainbow
image00927Western Democratic Imperialism
There is an age-old saying in Chinese: ‘Xiushen qijia zhiguo pintianxia.’ Literally translated it means: ‘look after yourself; look after family, look after your country, all will be peaceful under heaven.’  The saying is a verified truism and is only threatened or disrupted by external interference or aggression. The ethical basis and moral framework of society rest on the importance of personal responsibility. Each individual must be accountable and responsible for his own action.

The word nation in the Chinese language means ‘guojia’ – national family. It is this complex of individual families that made up a nation. In the Western world the ethical basis for society is abandoned largely for that much-clamoured human right, believing too that all problems can be solved by a good government. This is never believed to be possible in the East.

Human right must not be upheld at the expense of orderly society. Where the diminution of personal responsibility and moral erosion are overlooked, chaos sets in. A materialistic civilization breeds ills over and above those of a philosophical civilization. The lights of guns, drugs, violent crimes, vagrancy, all sorts of unruly behaviour and hell surface in the best of times, what more in a disaster, like  the  catastrophic Katrina, and the worst may yet be.

There’s always enough for human needs, but not for human greed. Materialism and capitalism thus often lead to moral degradation. Under the guise of democracy, liberation & freedom, the Bush Administration managed to “cover up” its true motives through lies, deceit & its glorified humanitarian objectives in misleading the American public & the world to invade Iraq.

In trying to propagate the Western brand of democratic imperialism, Bush has overlooked his own backyard. Much is left to be said even of its historical past and present where human rights are questioned. Justice must not just be heard but seen to be in practice, otherwise it’s like blowing hot air in the desert. The US Government has suffered a total breakdown of its civil society in the wake of “only water” (Hurricane Katrina) in New Orleans.

Lessons from the past with the Korean & Vietnamese Wars have failed to sink in with the Bush Administration. Its invincibility cannot however match up with the hearts & mind of the people fighting for the cause of their motherland.

To indiscriminately foist the democratic system on societies where it’s not workable only brings on more problems. There are many forms of government in the world even today. It’s not just democracy as the be all and end of all. Historically, societies had adopted systems of government best suited to their needs and circumstances. What works for one country may not necessarily works for another. Nations need to respect each other’s sovereignty. To each his own. Respect begets respect. Honour begets honour. Even with democracy, variants exist. The American brand is not necessarily the best brand or best suited to the needs of any nation.

The Big Brother Syndrome must not be in play. Guarding sovereignty & peaceful coexistence is the day.

Paul Chong
(Tuesday, 20 September 2005)