Destined for the dustbin of history, not world domination. China, the worlds largest gulag

I'm so tired of people speaking of China as the dominant world power of the near future. A bubble of cheap labor and exchange rates have made them a very competitive low end manufacturing power. Interestingly, they are starting to price themselves out of certain industries which can go to the cheapest source of labor, currently to be found in other parts of Asia and increasingly, Africa.

With a GDP 20% of the United States, they have a long way to go. And they'll never get there. It's not a free, capitalist society. And every country that has attempted to mimic the growth of U.S. style capitalism without the attendant freedoms - and yes I include the social democracies of Western Europe in this group - have failed miserably. Freedom breeds innovation. Unrestrained, unfettered flows of capital are the lifeblood of economic growth. China has little of either.

Below is an excerpt from the annual Freedom House survey on China:

Of the People’s Republic of China, Freedom House observes:

• "The Chinese government continued to restrict political rights and repress critics of the regime in 2005. Restrictions on communication became more severe."
• "The Chinese state closely monitors political activity and uses vaguely worded, national security regulations to justify detainment or imprisonment of those who are politically active without party approval."
• The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) "possesses a monopoly on political power." The nation ostensibly is governed by the 3,000-member National People’s Congress. In reality, the Congress rubber-stamps decisions of a 9-member standing committee of the CCP Politburo.
• "Freedom of expression is severely limited in China. All media are owned by state or party institutions and barred from criticizing senior CCP leaders, government policy and state ideology."
• "China regularly blocks websites it deems politically threatening." In 2005, Beijing shut down over a quarter of the nation’s 573,755 websites.
• "Though constitutionally recognized, religious freedom is accorded little respect. Atheism is taught in the schools."
• "Chinese workers are not allowed to form independent labor unions."
• "The party controls the judiciary. The CCP directs verdicts and sentences, particularly in politically sensitive cases." Verdicts are predetermined; trials are window-dressing.
• Sixty-five criminal offenses carry the death penalty.
• According to official figures, in 2005, there were over 87,000 "public order disturbances" – everything from scuffles with the police to peaceful protests – most brutally suppressed.
That’s an overview. To get the full flavor of daily life in this police state, you need to look a bit deeper.
• The nation’s one-child-per-family policy has led to forced abortions and infanticide and fueled the nation’s sex industry, due to a shortage of women.
• Even the mildest protest can result in harsh treatment. In December 2004, a housing advocate in Beijing was arrested for "disturbing the social order." His crime was applying for a permit to hold a demonstration.
• The regime has over 1,000 "re-education-through- labor" camps scattered around the country. At these slave-labor camps, as well as in the rest of China’s penal system, torture is ubiquitous.
• Amnesty International reported that in 2003, in the PRC: "Torture and ill-treatment remained widespread in many state institutions. Common methods included kicking, beating, electric shocks, suspension by the arms, shackling in painful positions, and sleep and food deprivation. Women in detention were vulnerable to rape and sexual abuse."
• In August 2005, Chinese journalist Zhu Wanxiang was sentenced to 10 years in prison for reporting on rural unrest. Also in 2005, independent journalist Shi Tao received the same sentence for "leaking state secrets abroad." The state secrets? The presence of overseas dissidents in China to commemorate the 15th. anniversary of Tiananmen Square.
• In the Marxist Middle Kingdom, you can go to jail for taking part in a demonstration, applying for a permit to hold a demonstration, reporting on a demonstration, posting something about a demonstration on a website or representing someone arrested during a demonstration. Gao Zhisheng, a prominent human rights lawyer, hasn’t been seen since he was seized by police on August 15.
• Conditions in China’s factories are abysmal. In the toy industry, wages range from 6 cents to 40 cents an hour. Workers as young as 12 (the average age is 15) work up to 19-hour days handling toxic chemicals in 104-degree temperatures.
• Also last year, Li Xintao, formerly a worker at the Huamei Garment factory in Shandong province, went to prison for 5 years for "disturbing public order and government institutions." His heinous offense consisted of trying to collect wages owed him by a bankrupt state company.
• There are credible reports of organ harvesting, in Chinese prisons and labor camps. Victims include prisoners of conscience, among them members of the Falun Gong.
• On July 29 of this year, police in a suburb of Hangzhou used electric stun batons to break up a demonstration by 3,000 Christians who were protesting the demolition of a house church (as all unauthorized churches are called).
• On July 19, 2003, Deng Shiying died two days after her release from the Jilin Women’s Prison in Changchun City. Deng, who was serving a seven-year sentence for producing and distributing material describing human rights abuses committed against Falun Gong members, was beaten by other inmates at the direction of guards.

In China, the regime goes to extraordinary lengths to suppress any religious activity it can’t control. Catholic bishops loyal to Rome (as opposed to the puppet Patriotic Catholic Church), are routinely imprisoned.The regime has a morbid fear of any organization which could conceivably challenge the party – be it a church, labor movement, independent association of journalists or lawyers or even a meditation cult. The more popular the cause, the more brutal the repression.That’s what China is today – a huge, border-to-border detention facility for 1.2 billion inmates where human rights are non-existent and democracy is a distant dream.

And this nation is the juggernaut of the 21st century? Take a closer look. It's been reported that 30% of the loans on the books of Chinese banks are in default. Their are a hundred protests a day against the government. And the mass of Chinese are incredibly poor. They're a long way from first world status, forget real economic, political or military competition to the United States.