Wow, this really hits home just how far China has come over the past four decades.

In their book Red Capitalism, the authors write that Deng Xiaoping led a large Chinese delegation in 1974 to a special session of the United Nations.  Just before departing,

…the entire central government, so the story goes, made a frantic search through all the banks in Beijing for funds to pay for the trip.  The cupboard was bare: they could scrape together only US$38,000.   This was the first time a supreme leader of China, virtually the Last Emperor, had visited America; if he couldn’t afford first-class international travel, just where was the money to support China’s economic development to come from?  – Red Capitalism

Less than forty years later the Chinese are landing on the moon.   Stunning!

China’s first moon rover, Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, separated from the lander early on Sunday, several hours after the Chang’e-3 probe soft-landed on the lunar surface. –EuroNews

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