"IMHO taken from the public via a corrupt dictatorship."

Wow! I wish you would at least familiarize yourself with the Chinese system before making that accusation!

The Central Chinese Government, the State Council, is made up of 35 members, including the Premier and all Ministers. There is an unwritten rule that members have to retire before they reach 70; usually that would restrict the position to 2 5-year terms.

I wouldn't call such a system a "dictatorship".

As to being "corrupt", there is serious corruptions in China, but most of that occur at the local level, and not at the Central level. The current Premier, Wen Jiabao, probably work much longer hours than any western leaders with a fraction of the financial reward. I certainly would not characterize him as a "corrupt dictator".

As far as "taking from the public", do you know the estimated combined take from various levels of Government in Canada? The Fraser Institute estimates that in 2000, Canadians pay 47.5% of their total income in taxes and the trend is upward; that is, the various governments take half of all income in Canada! That is much higher than the taxes in China which is estimated to be about 20% of GDP! So which government is "taking from the public"?

I'm not here to defend the Chinese government; I'm deadly against communism or any dictatorships, but baseless accusations would do no good in improving our understanding. JMO