@geezer - thanks for clarifying that point. I didn't know about the UK war debt to the USA - I was under the impression it was forgiven also.

War debts are typically forgiven at the sovereign level, in exchange for other barter - such as economic privileges (example - building railroads using the "forgiving" nation's firms as prime contractors, etc). The government of Taiwan (KMT) incurred significant private debts from WW2 approaching roughly USD 1 trillion in today's value, that are now expected to be repaid by China, to include back interest and potentially penalties. Given the history of settlements on other debts, China might opt to settle for literally pennies against the face value of the debt. Most of the owners of that original debt are dead, so I'd venture to guess the inheritors would settle, given the opportunity.

If China were able to create a sustainable and affordable national healthcare plan - would that essentially become the potential model for the rest of the world?

Given the scale and complexity of the project, I'm interested in observing China's solution to this critical social issue.

Michael, your statements are so full of inaccuracies that it would be difficult to accept nor debate any of your contentions as it is based on false assumptions.

For example, why would the US expect the PRC government to assume the debt of the ROC government when in fact, to this day, the US treats Taiwan as an separate entity from Mainland China? Please cite your sources if you are going to make specific fantastic claims.

Please stop believing in the propaganda. Check your sources. You are repeating the party line. On the one hand, China is a strong an powerful country able to stand up to America, but yet they are powerless to improve domestic quality of life issues because "we are still a developing nation".

"China is rich because we are the number 2 economy of the world, but we can't improve the living conditions of the masses because we have 1.4 billion people so we are poor".

Wilson got large sums of the war debt wiped in 1965 in return for not deflating sterling.

There were more concessions on the debt during the 'Winter of Discontent' to help a possible IMF loan for Britain.

Then again in 1991 there were further dealings on the debt in order to get Britain onside in the first Gulf War, as it stood to loose a lot of influence in the area in attacking Saddam.

What the status is with the Chinese debt I have no idea. Perhaps it was the first country to repay in full?

Anyway, the Brits have turned things around, now America owes them money, on top of a language.

Perhaps if they seperated their health system into provinces, like they do with their banking system, the number of people wouldn't be such a problem.

Any country that charges it's people for their well being is far from developed.

Tony
Inaccuracy is a matter of perspective. The debt I vaguely referenced was US publicly financed debt, raised by the KMT to support its efforts during WW2 and plunged into chaos when the KMT retreated to Taiwan. It's a source of "hot" contention for those interested in such things. Hopefully that will sate your incitement to the fantastic. On a less savory note - now I'm also wondering if China repaid its war debt to the USA as it seems more complicated than a single lump-sum war debt. Too complicated for me.

On the issue of segmenting and compartmentalizing as Napoleon suggested - that's absolutely imperative. If Obamacare crashed on launch for a few million Americans, I shudder to think what would happen in densely populated provinces such as Yunnan and Sichuan, much less trying to aggregate all this information into a monolithic Beijing database, but those are also technical issues.

Segmentation into bite-sized pieces is an operational solution. It doesn't address the core issues of financial and economic feasibility and sustainability, which I believe ultimately doomed Obamacare.

Michael,

Again, cite your sources. After Chiang-kai Shek retreated to the island of Taiwan, the US government still recognized the ROC government on the island as the legitimate representitive of China and hence, why it placed a trade embargo on the mainland, as you mentioned earlier. It wasn't until Nixon normalized relationships with Mao did that recognition change. BTW, China's permanent seat on the UN security council? You have Chiang to thank fot that.

Even though recognition was shifted from Taipei to Beijing, the US continued to support Taiwan financially and politically, even to this day, showing it recognises the distinction between the mainland and Taiwan.

This is the first time I've heard the claim that the CCP paid off the debts of the KMT, which makes me wonder Michael, do you routinely go around paying off other people's debts?

If the debt was raise from the US private sector by the KMT, then the CCP has no obligation to assume the debt and the creditors has no legal right to demand payment collect from them. If this narrative is coming from the government, I can only surmise that the propaganda is for the purpose of furthering their legitimacy on the claim of Taiwan. After all, only owners of a debt would pay it off; if China paid off Taiwan'S debt, then by extension, they own Taiwan.

Regarding Obamacare, I don't even want to get into that one as you are clearly talking out of your arse and very ill informed on this issue.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Your failure to provide any sources, the back tracking of previous claims before making even more fantastic claims, forces me to assume that you are making sh!t up, or you are just mindlessly passing on propaganda without the ability to think critically.

Michael, if you are going to continue to makeoutrageous claims, please cite your sources and present your evidence. Otherwise, I can equally claim that Mao personally killed one billion Chinese people by launching nuclear missles at them after an drunken orgy of er guo tou.

External DEBT: EU and America over 16 trillion EACH (top 2 in the world). US in debt to China currently. Get with it people. Its 2016 not 1946. Plus, countries don't owe other countries money, they owe banks

It's 2016?

What's it like in the future?

Imagine how much money could be put to good use on such things as healthcare if charities used ALL of it on what donaters think they are contributing towards. Unfortunately, large percents (up to 90%) gets spent on 'costs'. Research before you donate. Or even better do it yourself if you have the means

Nap' I look ahead