760,000 people die every year in #China because of pollution; PRC hosts 16/20 of world's most polluted cities tinyurl.com/aqnyw5z #Beijing—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) January 15, 2013
Pollution cost #China's economy US$112bn in just twelve months (2005) owing to lost labour and medical care costs tinyurl.com/aqnyw5z #WHO—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) January 15, 2013
China is not a democracy, and so is limited in areas beyond mass industrial production. The super-elite have no interest in being nice to the people they rule over. That is just a hard fact which more people need to be aware of.
One of the many Chinese paradoxes is that despite a rather authoritarian system, they perform surprisingly strongly in the creative industries (though generally not yet pop culture). The 2011 inauguration of Bejing’s Design Week (http://mediolana.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/from-made-in-china-to-imagined-in-china/) is testament to this. That said, it makes the elite-masses gap you point to even more of an issue – a conscious Chinese citizenry is one that desires appropriate engagement.