Still proud to be Chinese?

StephenC asked in his blog post about whether people are truly more proud to be Chinese nowadays, or whether that's just a byproduct of the booming economy.

I think we all know that there's a good part of that economy that's built on some pretty sinister stuff, like fake (and unsafe) food and medical products, and gooodness knows what else.

Another scary part came to light today in the New York Times: forced child labor. Now this is a little different from other countries, like India, where children pretty much have to work alongside their parents and help out with family finances. Since children are a pretty scarce resource in China, I think most parents would try to ensure as good a future for their kids if they could. No, these are kidnapped children who are then put to work in harsh, dangerous jobs.

Now I know that there's an exploited class in any country or society, and even the US has its share of teen prostitutes who are runaways from home, and then tricked into the flesh trade by pimps who "befriend" them.

But somehow, this business of China's seems much more horrifying.