I find comparing both sides of the Taiwan Strait helpful in assessing what China is doing. Both sides teach elementary pupils mathematics far better than the Un

I find comparing both sides of the Taiwan Strait helpful in assessing what China is doing. Both sides teach elementary pupils mathematics far better than the United States does,[1] and that provides Taiwan, China, and for that matter other countries that have the same educational practices big advantages in high-tech projects, because there are more engineers and more technicians who have the quantitative chops to do the work efficiently. But Taiwan, now a democracy with protection of civil rights and a free press, is on the whole not eager to build a lot of new nuclear plants. Taiwan has no domestic sources of petroleum and meager supplies of coal (China has a lot more of both), so Taiwan has to get hydrocarbon fuels mostly by engaging in international trade. The opposition political party there, the Democratic Progressive Party, just won big in the local elections, and looks set to have a good chance to retake the presidency of Taiwan in the next presidential election. The DPP has always been strongly aligned with the worldwide green movement, and what Taiwan will do for energy policy is first of all emphasize efficiency and conservation, as it has long had to do, and second of all look deeply at possibilities for renewable energy sources. I don't think China's current policies will be any more influential worldwide than they have been in China's nearest neighboring country. AFTER EDIT: In other words, as long as China is governed as a one-party dictatorship, I wouldn't take everything it does as a sign of good governance, but would rather look at individual policies on their individual merits. I do not advocate that the United States build a high-speed rail network on China's example. I don't think that China's policy of building a lot of nuclear reactors for electric power generation is convincing, even to me (my dad built electric generators as an industrial engineer, and was generally pro-nuclear as to what should spin the generators), that the United States should do more of the same. I do think that primary educators in the United States should take a close look at the content of elementary mathematics textbooks in China and at the actual classroom practices in China (and several neighboring countries). Those practices include subject-matter-specialist teachers in primary school, a very rare practice in the United States.[2] [1] http://www.ams.org/notices/199908/rev-howe.pdf http://www.ams.org/notices/199908/rev-howe.pdf http://www.math.wisc.edu/~askey/ask-gian.pdf http://www.math.wisc.edu/~askey/ask-gian.pdf [2] http://www.nctm.org/about/content.aspx?id=26069 http://www.nctm.org/about/content.aspx?id=26069 http://www.ams.org/notices/200502/fea-kenschaft.pdf http://www.ams.org/notices/200502/fea-kenschaft.pdf