How “civilised” are China’s model cities?
Clean toilets are good. Less crime would be better
Any number of things might bring a city down. For Tangshan it was the brutal assault on several women last month. For Guangzhou it was the destruction of ancient banyan trees. When a company in Changchun produced dud vaccines, the city suffered, too. All three were thrown off the government’s list of “civilised” cities in recent years.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “The civilising effect”
From the July 16th 2022 edition
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