China: The jailed salesman – General

In the past decade, China has witnessed an explosion in the number of citizens studying abroad, a 21st-century manifestation of a deep-rooted Confucius value that emphasizes education. Even before they enter high school, children of middle class families from cities across China start to see liuxue -- studying abroad -- as the default choice.

On the 90th anniversary of the founding of China's ruling Communist Party, the boss of the sweltering Yangtze River metropolis of Chongqing gathered 100,000 people in a soccer stadium and led them in a birthday singalong for the ages. They belted out, Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China, among other standards of decades past.

China's system of gov't is based not on a mandate from the people, nor does it rely on a mandate from heaven (which was the Chinese version of a divine right to rule), instead the current system relies on quality of life improvement spurred by China's growing GDP for their mandate to rule.

For more than a thousand years, the Italian town of Prato has been a textile center synonymous with top-quality craftsmanship. Now, it has become home to the largest concentration of Chinese residents in Europe. Authorities say 20,000 are legal, but as many as 30,000 are not.