China Rising.

It was an interesting TV show. We saw a demonstration of the awsome power of Market Economics, as 200 million Chinese left the land and poverty. The numbers simply boggle the mind. What is impressive to me is the emergence of the beautiful Chinese textiles and dresses. Gone are the drab Mao jackets, along with Maoism.

China is undergoing tremendous steps of construction, industrial and scientific leaps. If you are a defeatist or a Socialist, you cower and fume at the inequalities that have developed in China. If you are a Capitalist, you rejoice at the opportunities and the prospect of having 1.5 Billion people come out from under the yoke of Socialism.

But, China is a contradiction that is beginning to be affected by those contradictions. The flourishing Market Economy under the leadership of a potentially oppressive political party is like a building built on quicksand. If the Party leadership changes, the whole thing could unravel. There are other internal contradictions. A large and rural population that is being squeezed economically and encroaching urbanization gives rise to periodic unrest. The inadaquecy of credit for small and medium-sized enterprises is a drag on productivity.

The greatest danger to China's economy is its vulnerability to the growing failure of European and American Socialism. In many ways, China's economy is artificial. It is geared to exporting low-cost merchandise. There was the example of the young woman who runs knitting machines making socks. They work 12 hours per day and earn 60 cents an hour. That is enough to pay for her food, her share of the 10 women dorm and she still sends half of her pay 'home,' the village where she is from. This is not a lifestyle that can be sustained for decades. In fact, she dreams of getting an education and bettering her circumstances. What threatens China though is not the willingness of the people to work hard and accept low wages, but the unwillingness of the West to accept a situation where they can not compete. In the world of unionized work forces, any competition from low-wage employees is considered unfair. And European and American Socialists are aiming to put crippling tariffs on Chinese merchandise. The first item getting this treatment in the US is steel grating, which will be slapped a tariff of up to 150%. Chinese exports can not withstand that sort of punishment.

Another vulnerability of China is industrial accidents. Learning to operate industrial machines is not easy and learning this fast has its dangers.

Still another vulnerability of China is in the area of morality and a spiritual vacum. Capitalism is a tool, like a knife. It can carve a slice of bread or carve someone's face. Only Christianity provides the concept of compassion, forgiveness and love and voluntary accepting moral limits that is needed to temper the rough edges of Capitalism. How fast China accepts Christianity holds its fate.