Thomas Friedman, "The Talk of China": What Happened to His Bullet Trains and Ultramodern Airports?

Do you remember reading "Tom Swift" science fiction novels as a child? Well, there is nothing "swift" about Tom Friedman.

In his latest New York Times op-ed, "The Talk of China" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/opinion/sunday/friedman-the-talk-of-china.html?pagewanted=all), Friedman tells us from Beijing:

"More and more, the Chinese people, from microbloggers to peasants to students, are demanding that their voices be heard — and officials clearly feel the need to respond. China is now a strange hybrid — an autocracy with 400 million bloggers, who are censored, feared and listened to all at the same time."

So Friedman has finally woken up to the fact that China is not only about bullet trains and ultramodern airports, but also about slave labor and suppressed masses, deprived of basic human freedoms, that built this infrastructure.

Heck, it only took Tom a few years to reach this realization.