That is a complete red herring. No one on this thread said any of those things. I think the media and internet portrayal of China these days is fairly accurate:

That is a complete red herring. No one on this thread said any of those things. I think the media and internet portrayal of China these days is fairly accurate: a country filled gleaming new cities and hordes of well-off people, and also one in which you can get executed for stealing, disappeared for practicing the wrong religion, and tortured (or worse) for speaking out against the government. Also the fact that you seem to equate shopping with freedom strikes me as very American :-)