Huzington

According to this:

http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/90/...832_china.html

Godless Dave

Was the fact that Chinese citizens can go to jail for criticizing the government factored into "well-being"?

Amen-Moses

Prison food and plenty of exercise (especially of the breaking rocks kind) keeps the cholesterol levels down and helps avoid obesity so yes it probably was factored in.

Amen-Moses

BDS

Here's a table from the CIA world handbook. Who knows how accurate it is. however, China does not fare well.

http://www.mrdowling.com/800life.html

Huzington

LOL! CIA -- very reliable

Loren Pechtel

I would take the CIA world factbook over Pravda any day.

rfwu

Whoa! I didn't know that Saudi Arabia was so low! But look at Hong Kong! They're very high, and they follow the Chinese lifestyle too!

Loren Pechtel

Yeah, it's not so much the Chinese lifestyle as a combination of things:

Good basic sanitation.

Good medical care.

Lack of heavy violence.


Note that China lacks #1 and #2.

The water is still not safe to drink even in the big cities, although it's nowhere near as bad as in many parts of the world. Walking around Shanghai and Beijing we saw many places we wouldn't consider eating. Yet they were doing business.

Their medical system has always left something to be desired in the realm of the more expensive medicine and in the last couple of years things have fallen apart pretty badly. They are switching from a government system to a private system--and there seems to be nothing resembling an effective medical board.
The doctors are far more interested in lining their pockets than in curing patients. Fake medicine is common. (It's not that the doctors are any worse, it's that they didn't use to be able to profit from shenanigans.)

Vorkosigan

China lacks #3 too. Violence, ranging from domestic to gang-related, is a common feature of life in Chinese society, although it does not get the kind of publicity it deserves.

An additional factor is probably (4) the stats are being manipulated. There is no way figures coming out of China aren't cooked.

Vorkosigan

Claudia

The Pravda article took deep care in not providing any demographic statistics. I suppose it is a way to tell Russian people: your medical care is not the one you want, but look at China, they do well without access to western medicine.
Without any data to reinforce this "information".