China—lessons for the United States
Jay Arena M.D.
Even a short sojourn in China shows conclusively that China is changing. Yet, in a larger sense, China is also changeless, being too immense, too diverse, too complex, too civilized, too world-weary for any regime to tear up the past by the roots and start all over again. In China, if the peaks of privilege have been laid low, so also the valleys of poverty and disease have been filled.
Very few Chinese regard themselves as poor, although they have little in the way of material goods. The Chinese have a rich cultural life; they are articulate; they use their leisure time profitably; they have a clear understanding of where they want to go—and how they are going to get there.
