Changing the rules before China rules

I like my own type of study on nationalism. Ask people to rate different countries out of 10. How much they like them. That simple.

France? 7/10, they say. Romania? 4/10. Germany? 8/10. Ivory Coast? 3/10.

What about China? What do you give it?

At APEC, some legitimately expressed their dislike of George Bush, which I happen to share. But where was the protest against leaders other than Bush who have committed far more heinous crimes? And where was the pressure on countries like China to change the conditions for its own citizens? I welcome Beijing to balance the power of Washington, but ultimately, I'd prefer to live under the autocratical rule of the USA than China.
Issues under which world governments are likely to unite in order to pressure China.

Environmentalism, Equality, Human rights, Corruption and Governance, Good Institutions, Safe Products.
The stress should be to change, but slowly...we cannot force these things on China overnight, and the prosperity of the whole world is dependent on the prosperity and stability of China.

In the mean-time, is there really a decline, a decadence in our own societies which threaten their ongoing viability? We're so dependent on our cheap imports from China! Where will the next great factories be? And it seems to me that 1860-1939 was where such a great flurry of important scientific, philosophical and economic work was done, and more is being outsourced offshore all the time. Obviously since then, we've also had the computer and Internet revolutions, but standards seem to have dropped according to longitudinal studies, with the exception of amongst skilled migrants.

I hope India wins

Westerners - divert your money away from China and in to India. You may make 18% instead of 20% p/a, but you won't be implicitly supporting a monstrous totalitarian regime. The Chinese Communist Party has consistently showed its utter contempt for human rights, and demonstrated that it will pursue glory at any cost. I understand the importance of stability to the Chinese, given the chaos in China in the last century. I know that Chinese need to manage the possibility of their progress being de-railed by severely disruptive social problems. But Chinese leadership has conducted itself despicably.

Chinese often wonder why the events in and around Tiannenmen's square remain such powerful images in the minds of many Westerners...
-- Hundreds of millions of peasants that toil fruitlessly toward the glory that the CCP promises them have their homes demolished without notice or compensation, and, should they protest, they are beaten and jailed. There are too many people for fair trials. The media and political opposition are strangled in China, foreign investors have ridiculous restrictions placed on them, and may at any moment have their assets confiscated without recourse to legal action.
-- Chinese officials packed people infected with SARS into ambulances and drove around for hours just so that the WHO wouldnt know the truth of the extent of the infections and the inability of the health system to contain them.
-- Falun Gong members and their families are kidknapped, and often used in live organ forms. Outspoken members may be sent for "re-education", which is the Chinese government's way of saying they will labor all day to build the infrastructure to support this enormously overpopulated country. These measures against Falun Gong and other minorities are widely supported.
-- Govt officials decided not to tell 8 million residents in Hunan province that they were drinking poisoned water, while they scrambled to fix the problem.
-- The Chinese government maintains a "Great Firewall of China", censoring vast portions of the Internet which it feels undermine their iron grip over the contents of citizen's minds. The concept of freedom of speech, or expression in appearance, sexuality, profession etc just isn't taken seriously in China.
-- The Chinese, bent on a glorious image, snatch 5 year-olds from their families to be machine-trained for 7 hours a day in order to win gold at the Olympics. Yao Ming, the 232cm basketballer, was the product of government "matching" efforts between two tall people.
Etc. Think about it, the West sucks in many ways that China does not, but do you really see the above happening in countries such as France, Australia, Canada?

The Chinese are a proud, intelligent, hard-working people with an incredible history. They will form a very useful counterbalancing force to the USA et al. However, I'm worried about what China may look like when it has eclipsed them. Will Chinese citizens have rights by then? Or will tyranny be exported elsewhere?
The Chinese I meet who haven't been outside of China for long have huge walls in their head. This can appear sweet/cute, in native, naive Chinese girls in their 20s, but can also seem very ignorant. China (NOT people of Chinese origin) is socially and institutionally inferior in many respects to Western countries with long histories of wealth and stability. Also, it's great that China's politicians are often scientists and engineers rather than hacks like here, but they need to realise that Chinese cannot innovate to the degree required in today's information economy if they are brainwashed and taught not to think for themselves.
Unless China reforms, internal instability may cause its downfall, even without the demands for change that powerful Westerners are likely to start to call for. Float your currency, China.
India has many of the same problems as China, and it approaches many issues less scientifically and analytically. But it does a better job of balancing its development with justice, democracy and human rights.

******
This guy was so in love with this girl, that when he was away from her, he sent her a love letter every day for 500 days. On the 500th day, she married the postman.