When the Chinese Stop Laughing, the World Will Weep

Should we be scared of China?

When you get to China for the first time, you’ll be amazed to see that people there laugh all the time. This permanent laughter is a sign of Chinamen’s quest for happiness started millennia ago, which has held together their vast empire.

However, these days China is changing daily. A new species has been born there: the consumer. The thirst for riches and the need for material comfort are set to replace the unique pursuit of an entire nation…

In other words, the country has become super-capitalistic. While the State has remained marxist, and can only watch, helplessly, its exponential growth and the rise of a massive middle class, with values that are entirely different from those of their ancestors.

This essay shows through many telltale signs the devastating consequences of the mutation of this vast country on the economy, the politics, even, in the worst case scenario, on the military aspect of the whole world.

We must foresee the volatility of China and we must prevent the Great Dragon from collapsing towards the unknown, and dragging us down with them.

Born in 1950, Jose Freches knows China well; he has travelled there regularly since 1972. He is an alumnus form the ENA, with a degree in history, history of art and Chinese, he used to be the curator of the National Museums in the Louvre and the Guimet Museum, he is the author of The Disc of Jade, the Empress of Silk, and The Empire of Tears, which have conquered the hearts of his readers.