2008: A Testing Year For China -- A Commentary

From The Telegraph:

This was supposed to be China's golden year, when the Middle Kingdom would take its place on the world stage with a triumphant Olympic display. It has not turned out like that.

Olympic glory has been overshadowed by riots in Tibet, an earthquake in Sichuan that killed more than 88,000 people, and a crisis over toxic baby milk in which at least 300,000 infants were taken ill and six died.

On Thursday, when China celebrates the 30th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping's ground-breaking economic reforms, it does so in the shadow of a global economic catastrophe that is biting heavily at home.

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