Return to this issue's Table of Contents.
China ends, mountains, deserts, and nomadism begin.
Its sheer size has meant that China's dynastic transitions have been vulnerable to rebellions, warlordism, and a weak central government. More foreign correspondence in The Atlantic Monthly and Atlantic Unbound. The truth about Tibet is not simple. The price of China's surging economy is a vast degradation of the environment, with planetary implications. Although the Chinese government knows the environment needs protection, writes the author, who spent six weeks inside China investigating the growing environmental crisis, it fears that doing the right thing could be political suicide.