Blindness Over Beijing's Economic Woes

摘要

When President George W. Bush visited Asia in February, the world's leading weekly news magazines seemed only interested in one story-the economic woes afflicting one of the countries he visited. The Economist's cover story was titled "The Sadness of Japan." Time magazine called it "Japan's Sob Story." Nowhere was there any suggestion that China might be facing similar economic problems. Instead Newsweek's article about Japan was titled "Trapped in a Chinese Box," and suggested its problems had been made all the more acute by "China's emergence as an economic powerhouse." The message could hardly be clearer. The two countries are utterly differ-ent-with Japan going down the tubes while China, workshop of the world in the making and recent entrant to the World Trade Organization, is bursting forth.