I wonder if it’s living under a communist system for so long or experiencing all of the wonderful things capitalism is doing to your country that make the Chinese the biggest supporters of capitalism:

Though Mao Tse-tung’s portrait still hangs in Tiananmen Square, a recent poll shows that the Chinese are crazier about capitalism than are Americans. In fact, they top the world-wide rankings in their zeal for free markets. No wonder Mao isn’t smiling.

In a poll conducted for the University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes between June and August last year, fully 74% of Chinese citizens said they agreed with the statement “the free enterprise system and free market economy is the best system on which to base the future of the world.” The Philippines, at 73%, and the U.S., at 71%, were second and third. The poll, which surveyed 20,791 people in 20 countries, seems like a pretty good snapshot of current sentiment, as such things go.

The article concludes with:

Mao would probably turn over in his glass case if he realized that the Chinese have rejected his teachings. But the harsh consequences those teachings imposed on his countrymen have been an education like no other. Nothing creates eager young capitalists quite like living under Communism.

The full article (WSJ $$) can be found here.