China is 62 percent of the way towards restoring its former glory

GlobalPost

Last week Yang Yiyong, the Director of the Macroeconomics Institute of China’ National Development and Reform Commission, gave a presentation the revealed China was at least 62 percent of the way to restoring former glories and becoming the world's most important power.

In fact, China scored precisely 0.6274 on the "Index of rejuvenating the Chinese nation" in 2010 according to Sina, a significant increase on the country's score in 2007, when China's journey was only 46 percent complete (a figure that apparently irritated Chinese officials according to Yang).

But wait, how was Yang coming up with these figures?

Apparently through a complex calculation based on specific 29 indicators which can be broadly divided into six factors (economic, social, civility, sci-tech, resources, global). 

While this sounds like good news for China, Chinese netizens aren't so sure. Offbeat China points out that 62 percent has become an internet meme and topped Weibo's trending topics for over 2 days. The Weibo posts pointed to aren't exactly positive:

mlito: “The Chinese civilization is 62 percent complete to become the worst time throughout its history.  Food safety crisis, housing crisis, public trust crisis.”

“The mission of enlarging the gap between the rich and the poor is 62 percent complete.”

Even state-run newspaper Global Times published an opinion piece that was negative about the findings. The article concluded:

China's revival shouldn't be solely determined by comparing its numbers with the West, but by its own people's patriotism and cultural confidence. But these can barely be measured by numbers.

Yang seems unfazed by the criticism however. The next report is planned for 2017, Sina reports, and he is considering adding more indicators.

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