Chinese in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Larger than They Are

FT story on how the West’s diet industry “drools over China’s desire to lose weight.”

Fat Chinese?  Yup.  A stunningly fast outcome of the one-child policy is the supersizing of the “little emperors,” who are supposed to fight over insufficient number of Chinese women WRT marriage AND take care of their parents and grandparents in their old age AND (according to whack-job Western demographers) somehow be willing to join the military and fight overseas wars because of their “surplus” status AND (according to this story) will have to do all these things while fighting their own personal battles of the bulge.

These poor fellows.

Better read Paul French’s book, already out:  “Fat China:  How Expanding Waistlines are Changing a Nation.”

Remember such trends when you scan all these “China will rule the world” tomes and fend off the litany of expert predictions of why we must go to war with China over developing region resources.  China isn’t merely moving up the production scale with speed, it’s likewise moving up the Western scale of social problems with equal speed.

I mean, how many “literate peasants” do you expect will be willing to lay down their lives in overseas adventures for these chubby little emperors back home?  Given China’s loooong history of military adventurism distant from its shores (hmm, where did I put that volume?)?

Many-fat destiny beckons . . .