The real China: One half of all children in rural China in foster homes

George H. Wittman, writing in the American Spectator, describes the flip side of the Chinese "miracle":

The vaunted great managerial ability of China's political and economic leadership falls far short of the accomplishment for which it is given credit. Perhaps the most obvious manifestation of the gigantic social price being paid by the inequitable economic basis of China's modern development is the fact that the extolled factory system of the nation is based to a great degree on the brutal totalitarian system of separating workers from their rural families.
Official estimates indicate nearly 60 million children have been left behind in foster homes due to the economically forced migration of their parents to work in the cities. This is approximately one half of all the children of rural China. It is said that their poorly educated parents have chosen to live separate lives from their families; that it is a conscious sacrifice for their good and the good of modern Chinese society.
The reality is that this system is the basis for what President Hu Jintao characterized as creating a "moderately well-off society." The entire principle is an outgrowth of the Mao Tse-tung willingness to break down the Chinese family in order to replace it with a state-controlled system. Mao succeeded in the separation but not the destruction of the family. Today's statist China hides a similar device, but in the end is doing the same thing. China's economic life is dictated by such exploitive justification camouflaged by political economic rhetoric.

Read the entire article here.