When you think of China, I’ll be you think of The Great Wall, rich history, lush country sides, and lots of tea and rice. Right? I’m sure that’s what the International Olympic Committee was thinking of when they awarded the 2008 Summer Olympics to Beijing. I’m sure it will be an amazing specticle, especially concidering these facts:

China, the last “1st world” country still clinging to communism, has boomed economicly in the last few decades after opening it’s doors to western commerce and culture.

That is, except for religion. The Chinese government acknowledges imprisonling 3000 people for practicing religion. Most civil rights groups believe the true number is exponentially higher.

Oh, and don’t forget their “family” policy. In China, it is against the law to have more than one child. Because of this, most female children are aborted or killed after birth, since they can not carry on the family name. Women found carrying a second child are taken into government custody and given and abortion, whether they want it or not.

Okay, okay, so they’ve got some policy issues, but just look at their amazing technilogical progress!

China has nearly completed the biggest hydro-electric dam in the world, the mighty Three Gorges Dam. The project is to provide huge amounts of electricity and control flooding along the Yangtze river. The United States used a paltry 4.3 million cubic meters of concrete to create that silly little Panama Canal. The Three Gorges Dam contains 26.4 million!! An engineering master piece, right?

Well, maybe not. Since construction began, around 80 cracks have developed in the dam. Of course that’s only counting the cracks that are over 8 feet DEEP. Not all those silly surface cracks that are only 6 or 7 feet deep.

Almost two million chinese citizens will lose their homes and land when the dam and resevoir are complete. That’s roughly the population of the entire state of New Mexico. 40% of the people displaced by the dam will receive no compensation from the Chinese government.

Well, at least they’re got that flooding under control. Nope. The deforestation and massive earth moving project that rerouted the Yangtze River for the dam project has caused the flooding to get worse. Just a few days ago, the river and locks around the dam had to be closed because of flooding in the area. The concern now is that water will have to be released from the not quite finished dam. The deluge down stream is likely to devistate several villages.

Okay, well how about that Great Wall, huh? That’s a great piece of work. It must take a great country to build a wall like that! True. It took 1.8 million forced laborers back in 555 A.D., many of whom died in the process and some are actually entombed inside the wall. Funny. That’s the same number of people who homes are going to be under a lake. What a coincidence.