Through all the changes of the past decades, Tiananmen Square still sums up China. I was there last week and the first thing that strikes you is its size. Like many things in China, it is the biggest of its kind in the world. China also has the largest population and the biggest army, produces the most cement, and has put much of this into the world’s largest dam. Combined with the world’s highest rate of sustained economic growth, this makes China both the greatest threat to British economic complacency and the biggest opportunity for UK exporters.
Tiananmen Square also reflects China as it is divided: Mao’s mausoleum, a grisly relic of unhappier times, cuts it in two. The most striking divide in China is between the three fifths of the population who are rural and poor, with millions living on just a dollar a day, and the two fifths who are urban and increasingly rich.
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