Before my recent trip to China, I heard many political commentators and other TV personalities speak of China taking over as the world’s next superpower. With what are they going to lead? With fake Prada purses and cheap electronics?

After spending two and a half weeks in the country of 1.3 billion people, I don’t see China becoming a world leader in my lifetime. The Chinese were very friendly and helpful. They tried very hard to communicate with me despite my few words of Mandarin and their poor English. Though major improvements have been made in China and the country is developing rapidly, I don’t see the country’s leadership potential.

Driving from the Beijing airport to Tianammen Square, I passed by many new high rise buildings and new construction sites. They make the country seem modern, but the infrastructure of the country can’t support modernity or the masses of people flocking to work in China’s big cities. Some of these new hotel buildings are so poorly designed that there are not enough elevators to move hotel guests at peak check-in and check-out hours. The new buildings and shopping malls are the Chinese Communist Emperor’s new clothes. They are hiding that the country is not as fancy and sophisticated as it appears.

The banks and travel agencies work very slowly. Even though they have computers, the staff have to stamp lots of pieces of paper and hand them to their coworkers to add even more stamps. It reminds me of the Italian movie “Black eyes” (Ochi Chornayi) with Marcello Mastroanni. Traveling in czarist Russia, the Italian man can’t believe all the government offices he has to visit to get a permit. In the movie, it’s funny. But when all I had to change was $27, I did not want to spend over 15 minutes watching the bank clerk rewrite my receipt three times and stamp it dramatically. It’s as though the government created multiple layers of bureaucracy just to give people paper stamping and shuffling jobs. Lots of paper and rubber stamps don’t make people efficient and powerful. It just makes people slow. Very slow.

Slow is the name of the game. Even “fast” Internet connections don’t live up to their name. Many sites are blocked for political reasons. I couldn’t read my Hotmail account on several occasions.

Leaders have to be aware of the world around them and their own history. If the Internet generation in China can’t read about the Olympic Torch protests around the world and the massacre in Tianammen Square, how will they lead their country? They don’t know their past and will barely be able to see where it’s going.

The country is myopic

As in Taiwan, where there is a huge emphasis on reading and memorizing many Chinese characters China has a high rate of near sighted people. Few, however, wear glasses. I bet many don’t have access to medical care or are too ashamed to be spectacled. The kamikaze drivers in China are already killers on wheels.

How will the country progress with more and more people behind the wheel who can’t see well and who don’t know how to drive? I envision major accidents on a regular basis. Vehicular manslaughter may be a way to reduce population growth, but it’s not a humane method to keep the country’s population from exploding.

Let’s not translate China’s current economic boom into fear that the country will soon be a major superpower. Let’s not be myopic.

The lack of running water is a huge problem not just for cooking and drinking water needs, but for personal hygiene. Taking a taxi in China was not only scary because of the drivers who didn’t pay attention to traffic signals and were ready to run over anyone and anything, but many of the taxi drivers I met didn’t shower regularly or wash their clothes. They reeked. Taking mass transit was not always a better option because when I was in a crowded subway car or bus with several people for whom running water or soap were not readily available, I didn’t want to breathe. The stench was horrible.

As for personal hygiene, the lack of soap at public toilets makes me wonder if there might be a Hepatitis epidemic already looming in the country. At public toilets, no one waits in line for the next available toilet. People just crowd around the toilets and wait for the first door to open and then stampede to the door. Whoever makes it to the door first is the one who gets in. Luckily, the stalls have doors. A few years ago, there were no doors.

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