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Gold Rush

A gold rush is underway in the only remaining communist country with clout. As peasants labor in the unchanged Chinese countryside, chained to ancient poverty, the cities and industrial towns witness the emergence of the unfettered beast of profit. Black luxury cars cruise the streets of the cities, pushing aside bicycles and horse drawn carts. Smoky late night karaoke bars are filled with businessmen dressed in Italian threads who are getting drunk on French wine. At their sides are pretty young girls chasing after glittering rocks and expensive western brand name clothing to adorn their desirable figures.

This is the land of "class struggle" and proletarian utopia. The new class of capitalists are the same people who terrorized and vandalized China in the name of Mao as the Red Guard. These are the same who denounced Western imperialism. Now they are clinking glasses of Bordeaux with Western businessmen to toast the opening of some new sweatshop that will pump out products far too expensive for common people to afford.

This rush for wealth has many of the same attributes as those of other times, in other places. The rampant prostitution and drunkenness, the conspicuous displays of riches, and the breakdown of traditional morals are all here. One need only look to Seattle at the time of the Alaskan gold rush to see a parallel in behavior; however, there is one insidious difference. The gold here is the awesome reservoir of cheap labor. The opening of this seemingly inexhaustible supply of human toil at bottom dollar has every sort of manufacturing corporation blubbering with joy. It is as though the pearly gates of hog heaven have been thrown wide open.

Already, the agents of these corporations have begun to reveal the true nature of their purpose. One can see them staggering down the bar streets late at night, their expensive suits all askew, gut hanging over their Armani pants, hooker hanging on their arm. Ordinary Chinese look on with puzzlement and disgust as these men blithely wallow in the muck of self-gratification. A number of establishments are peppered about with the purpose of catering to their shameful desires. Many of these places are stocked with hookers from outer Mongolia and other areas of extreme poverty. To the hookers, nice clothes, good food, and in-home bathrooms are dreams come true. Businessmen take full advantage of this fact and buy beautiful girls for one-tenth the price they would pay back home. The extent of this whoremongering is truly unbelievable, and would shock just about anyone from the states.

--William Price, Beijing