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To Get Rich Is Glorious (view source)

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{{tropeUseful Notes}}
{{quote|''It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white--so long as it catches mice.''|'''[[Magnificent Bastard|Deng Xiaoping]]'''}}
 
The current phase of Chinese history. After the [[Cultural Revolution]] escalated [[Up to Eleven]], to the point that even [[Mao Ze DongZedong]] regretted it, the red guards were arrested and subjected to reeducation. Perhaps more important than internal factors, however, would be [[Richard Nixon]] when he visited to China in [[The Seventies]]. Picking up on the fact that China and the Soviet Union had gradually fallen out of each other's favor (ironically, the original reason for this was because Mao felt the Soviet Union was growing ''less'' aggressive towards the West under Nikita Krushchev), Nixon had the idea of courting China into the American sphere of influence. At the time he flew to Beijing and met with Mao, both leaders were grossly unpopular with their people, but their agreement to negotiate ties between their nations would have lasting effects. Trade began to pick up between the two superpowers, with the positive effects that such trade tends to have.
 
Soon after, Mao died in 1976, and the reform-minded Deng Xiaoping finagled his way into power. Taking advantage of the changing world, Deng pushed through many economic reforms, arguing that "Poverty is not socialism," and that experimenting with capitalism was, in a nutshell, the best means to achieve the nation's stated communist ends. Leading the charge were "Special Economic Zones," mostly coastal cities with looser economic controls meant to attract foreign investors (There were some fairly [[Unfortunate Implications]] in the fact that many had been "treaty ports" seized by Western powers as semi-colonies events like the Opium Wars, but again; the ends justified the means); these lessened restrictions plus the much lower wages tolerated by Chinese workers, ironically as a result of poor economics in the many preceding decades, ensured that many foreign corporations would move their operations in. (Turn over your mouse and examine it right now; chances are it was made in China, along with most other things you own.) The enriched Chinese inhabiting the cities were then presumed to reinvest their own money inland.
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The government [[Banned in China|occasionally cracks down]] on the population again, disturbing to citizens of the "free world" who feel that it's their outsourced dollars that are allowing it to do so. With the current economic troubles in the West, many feel it's only a matter of time before [[China Takes Over the World]], for better or for worse. Though, at the moment, China still has a very bad wealth to population ratio (ranked 90th in the world, whereas the US is 6th) and it's economy is still well less than half the size of the [[United States]] or [[European Union]].
 
But what ''is'' China, anyway? Is it a centralized bureaucratic empire ruled by tradition? A zealous communist police state? A [[Mad Science]] experiment obsessed with progress at all costs? Probably nobody knows anymore--notanymore—not even the Chinese themselves.
 
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