economy - A critical review of China Inc.

Just leave it up to John Pomfret, the former Beijing chief of the Washington Post, two write a devastating review of the much praized book China, Inc by Ted C. Fishman. While Pomfret joins initially the praise, his review slowly turns nasty.

But secure in his belief that China is going to become a hyperpower in the very near future, Fishman (a former commodities trader and now a writer) often ignores his research or switches the subject. In one section, for example, he explores China's serious demographic problems. In some parts of the country, the population -- using ultrasound equipment and infanticide -- is now having 137 boy babies for every 100 girls. But China, Inc. offers no discussion of the social effects this type of skewed demographics could have. Fishman comes to a dizzying stop, and we're off to a discussion of skyscrapers in Beijing.

Fishman is part of the current China-wave, ignoring the subtle complexities that brought foreign businesses so often before into hot water. While Fishman mostly writes about figures and economy, sidesteps into politics Pomfret evens finds more unreliable:

Fishman seems to be implying that granting "expressive freedom" would be an easy
thing for a Communist Party committed to a monopoly on power. Such lines, which
pop up often in the book, underscore a lack of understanding of how China's political system works.