China's Top Leaders Vow to Tackle Poverty - Yahoo! News

"China's communist leadership has made tackling poverty in the countryside a key priority, as it acknowledges that three decades of economic and social reforms have left great swaths of the population behind."

China's leaders are acting more and more like western politicians in a liberal democratic party, recognizing the importance of wooing people through the media since they are not able to control all of the news in the age of modern telecommunications.

While they continue to push for privatization and regulation in order to stimulate economic growth, they also recognize the importance of deifining the government role in providing public services in order to win citizens' allegiance.

Pollution Limits Sun in China - Yahoo! News

"China's skies have darkened over the past 50 years, possibly due to haze resulting from a nine-fold increase in fossil fuel emissions, according to researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy. "

And it will only get worse...

China's energy consumption is growing at such a rapid pace! Oil is going to continnnue to be a precious commodity controlling a lot of the world's politics.

Let the Fireworks Begin!

China is once again allowing fireworks in large cities, where they have been banned for many years.

The trends I see in this are a slowly developing culture of prosperity, where people are spending more money on luxuries (and it is privately spent by individuals, not the government providing public festivities), and a slow emergence of traditional culture, where historical practices are revived.