china: when it snows, it blizzards
by Max Clark
Published: February 6, 2008
I know Super Tuesday is just passed and the field is still open, and maybe there are more important things to discuss than the weather, but I felt obliged to mention that right now there is a lot of snow in China. I know your first thought: “How fun! Every Chinese family gets a snow day - time before the new year to play in the fields, building some snow pagodas, making snow-protestors and throwing snowballs at them. Good for them!”
But the sad fact of the matter is that the Chinese usually do not get snow days. If they were given the day off because of the weather, they would probably feel obligated to spend it working. And as the flakes keep accumulating, another thought creeps into one’s mind: “Oh right, global catastrophe.”
If you haven’t been following the situation, you know as much about it as any Chinese person. However, if you’ve been looking at reports you know that now, in the lead up to the Spring Festival, when the entire country is on vacation, blizzards have crippled the infrastructure in a storm unseen as of yet during communism.
How bad is it? Unfathomable millions are currently without lights or water, something being prolonged by the constant deaths of electricians - eleven, as of Sunday - during failed attempts to restore power. In addition, there are 100 million people stranded, 65 people dead by official count (which means the actual figure is in severe triple digits) and most importantly, it’s snowing over the southern crops. It’s that part which alarms me a bit.
There’s a Chinese intellectual named Zheng Bijian who said it all comes down to simple math: when considering problems, everything is multiplied by 1.3 billion and in measuring resources, everything is divided by 1.3 billion. So, when China’s crops are ruined what happens?
Just a little food for thought.
The Chinese Government has reacted in full force however, bringing forth a huge propaganda campaign showing those rare regions where help has been brought, showing trains being dug out and aid getting where it needs to be. That’s about all they can do. They’re violently under-prepared for something of this nature.
I know we try to demonize China because we’ve borrowed so much money from them, bought more of their goods than they’ve bought of ours and because of their terribly repressive government. But besides that last part, it’s really not so bad over there. The food is cheap, the people are friendly and the children are adorable. And right now they all have their noses pressed up against the winter of their discontent.
What does this mean for you and me? Maybe nothing, but in the event of a catastrophe, we might want to remember that we owe them over $1 trillion. That number comes before this next budgetary year, which is hallmarked by President Bush’s announcement of the biggest deficit spending proposal of his career - and that’s saying something - in which we borrow even more. But even if nothing happens economically, even if the Chinese manage to feed themselves, or at least put out engaging State-news stories to that effect, we should just consider for one moment how fragile the current global situation really is.
Happy New Year, China.
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