world market? Japan has shown that effective management and excellent organisational skills are every bit as important as scientific and technological invention, and no doubt China will do the same thing, in its turn. And as for authoritarian government, isn't that what Britain suffers from at the moment? The British get the chance to express their political will, very imperfectly, when general elections come round, but for the rest of the time prime ministers with big enough majorities are able to rule as though they were medieval kings. China will not get the West out from this mess, but this article completely underestimate the strength of China's economy. Any person who has visited several Chinese cities or read economic statistic data of China's economy will draw conclusion that many points of this article do not agree with facts. "China consumes less than Italy." Is the author drunken? In fact, China consums only second to USA. I suggest the author read some industrial and agricultural consumption data of China. That's a very intelligent and informed write, Mr. Hutton. China's reforms, which started with Deng Xiaoping in the 80's were opportunistic rather than proactive. They weren't reforms that set up new institutions, invested in infrastructure or human resources, but consisted merely in opening up the borders to capitalist marauders seeking to fire their unionized workforce and replace it with Chinese coolies. The Chinese Communist Party collaborated with imperialist global capital to deal a crippling blow to the working class, just as it