Meanwhile in China… Sweet Powerpoint-style Graphics of Government Growth Plans (Updated)

While most of the developed world is freaking out about the ongoing economic fallout—The Great Recession if you will (something I heard Kurt Andersen say last night)—China is fighting to hang on to growth. So, earlier this morning, way across the world from here, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao delivered a report to the National People’s Congress revealing his plans for how China will navigate the increasingly turbulent waters of our global economy.

If you’d like to read some of the major bullet points, you can do so here. However, if you prefer to look at pictures and graphics rather than read, then these slides found on Chinese news site xinhuanet.com are for you.

As someone who often works on visual communication of information (like our weekly Transparencies or our recent infographic challenge to explain the financial crisis), I find this wonderful. Sure, every bad trick in the powerpoint/clipart book is relentlessly piled upon these slides. But still, it’s fascinating to see typically boring, impenetrable government plans presented in a manner sincere in its attempt to communicate with anyone.

UPDATE: After consulting with a few friends living in China, I’ve learned that Xinhua, the institution that created these, is the Chinese government’s media outlet. I think that makes me like them even more.

To start, here’s the slides looking at China’s plans and goals for 2009:

And here’s a few slides looking at progress made in the past few years:

And just in case you were worried, China does seem to be paying some attention to it’s environmental impact:

To see a few more slides from this presentation, click here.

(And stay posted, we’re kicking around ideas for making some things like this—but better looking—for U.S. Government documents soon.)