China Bans Reporting on Bridge Collapse

Another day, another example of the Chinese government at work. A very interesting article on the Chinese government and its uneasy relationship with the press/the Internet/the world in general came up last week.

After scares over buns, toys and just about every other consumer good that is made in China it would seem that even now the building quality of the very infrastructure of the country is being called into question.

Is this fair? Its hard to say but certainly a bridge did collapse. It could be said that this is an isolated case, and when you look at some Chinese engineering examples such as the 3 Gorges Dam or some of the new 30 KM (yes 30 kilometers!!) bridges there is a lot to marvel at about China's engineering capabilities.

But the crunch factor is that a lot of these bigger projects have western project managers if for no other reason than size. This bridge example was one that the local government worked on with all the issues that local government has in China.

Is it any wonder that the new Chinese middle class does not want to buy "made in China goods." They would much rather but German cars or English leather goods and you can see and when you look at this in detail, you can start to see why. Fair? Perhaps not, but when have consumers ever been fair or rational in any culture?

Full article here on the bridge