Day 31 It’s hard, in today’s China, not to ruminate on the rule of communism. My views are shaped by visits behind the Iron Curtain in the 1980’s. Oppression, iron fist rule, officious police checkpoints, travel restrictions, a cowering populace, no entrepreneurial drive, no merchandise and a host of other shadowy and dark adjectives continue to shape my views. Even China on a visit in 2002 seemed some of the above. Now this country has reshaped itself and it’s me that needs to reshape my expectations of communism. I have struggled to align the economy with the governing system here. Slowly I understand, it’s time to unfasten them in my head. There is no communism, as I knew it, here any more. Economically, this is a strongly capitalist and strongly commercial country. Since the day we
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