I've recently become a fan of a website called China Daily Show which offers humorous, parodic (and usually completely made-up) news stories. Since I tend to appreciate this form of highly sarcastic humor (which, despite the clearly fake nature of the stories, usually implies at least some element of truth or reality), I can't resist posting a link to one particular article - Desperate Romney Changes Mind on China. In the article, Romney attacks president Obama's "socialist welfare state" policies, praises China's lacks of social welfare, and is shown posing in a photo with a poor Chinese peasant family whose main social welfare will be their young children. In addition to making fun of Romney, this piece also pokes fun at China's largely lacking socialism in some elements of society (which poses a future threat as China's massive population experiences a demographic shift - more older people with a smaller working-age percentage of the population to support them).
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| Mitt in a photoshopped pose with a Chinese peasant family |
- “China’s emphasis on standardized testing ensures the country will always have a pool of unskilled laborers, thankful for work under any conditions; laborers who lack the critical skills to see through nationalistic rhetoric that blames their problems on other countries, instead of structural inequities."
- “Under Obama, US regulators over-enforce the law and kill jobs . . . In China, it’s the complete opposite. There is an official embedded in the heart of every major enterprise, asking: ‘How can we work together to make even more money?"
- "Republicans and Beijing officials have more in common than one might think, said one senior Romney staffer on condition of complete deniability. Both favor low taxes – with the ultra-rich often paying none at all – while China’s minimal enforcement of environmental and safety regulations have led to double-digit economic growth. For those who gain the most, the benefits outweigh the many hazards."
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