Civilised myths

I just want to end by commenting on a couple of myths!
We keep being told that China has had 3,000 years of civilisation, 5 or 4 or3 dynasties ( dependant upon who you are listening to) so being the pedant that I am I have read extensively on China's history and looked up the dictionary meaning of civilisation, talked and listened to masses of people.

Civilisation is; "social organization of a high order," China has never had this ---ever! It has had a series of dynasties separated by hundreds of years of civil wars, mass slaughter, hunger, deprivation and autocratic unelected despotism. The great works and monuments tell their own tales (magnificent though they are), The Forbidden city was built to prevent emperors being assassinated, it housed their family and retinue of 9,000 and kept out the people and any contender for the title. The great wall was built by slave labour and garrisoned by conscripts who were sent to the wall with their families and had to feed themselves and their families without pay. Even the rulers were not safe from the slaughter, one General advised the Emperor that in his professional view the start of winter was not a good time to start a war. Just because he had voiced a contrary opinion to that of the Emperor he and 20,000 of his family, friends, acquaintances, schoolmates etc. were slaughtered to teach everyone a lesson. It has continued right up to today, the ruling one party state will not condone opposition in any form, corruption is rife the people oppressed.

The second myth is in the name of the country, The Peoples Republic of China. The dictionary defines a Republic as; "a nation or government in which the supreme power rests with all the citizens and is exercised by representatives elected by them".
 They are, to put it politely, having a laugh are they not? Power rests with the people! Representatives elected!  Tell that to those evicted from their lands prevented from, voicing an opinion, prevented from reading, hearing or watching what they want, forced to have abortions (unless you are  rich enough to pay the fine (bribe) to have a second baby) The power rests with an elite 350 party members who allocate each other the spoils and continue to oppress the population, not much change from the past 3,4 or 5 dynasties then!
I know it may sound odd after such a wonderful adventure, seeing fabulous sites and meeting such a wide selection of incredible people but as long as we all, individually or collectively as nations condone governments and "civilisations" like this the world will never be a better place for untold millions of our fellow citizens. 
Tony