The world's greatest hypocrites

This week China will pay homage to Mao Zedong, marking the anniversary of his death 30 years ago. That a nation would venerate a mass murderer is not unusual -- nations do it all the time. But commemorating the man who brought communism to China does more than preserve the memory of a totalitarian past, it also unwittingly illustrates the monstrous hypocrisy of China's present.

Chinese leaders insist the country remains committed to communism, yet nowhere else on Earth does capitalism hold such unfettered sway. Capitalists can steal the land of peasants and city-dwellers alike for development with virtual impunity. They can pollute with abandon. They can literally work employees to death with 90-hour weeks at low pay, employees who have no pensions or social security, no medical or unemployment insurance, nor any right to form an independent union to promote their interests. Capitalists can have a second child, or more by paying a fine; they can have local officials who displease them fired; and their children can add marks to their school entrance exams simply for being rich.

Nowhere are capitalists treated better or workers worse than in this workers' paradise. Celebrating Mao, who also treated working people with contempt, seems somehow fitting for the new China.