How do you keep a nation happy and content when times are tough and luxuries few and far between? If the country is China, banning sight of luxury products appears to be the way.

China is a little more open to the West in the 21st Century. It remains a strange country, however, to non-nationals. That is often the case with other countries though. If you live in the Sahara Dessert, for instance, your life will bear little relation to a resident of New York, USA. A country that experienced a revolution, which radically changed the life of all its people, China knows all too well that people can, and may, rise up. The Arab Spring, the so called revolution in various Middle Eastern countries, was sparked by many things. On one basic level a desire for westernisation played its part. Easy access to the Internet, world TV and advertising meant that people living in restrictive countries such as Libya and Egypt could glimpse western life, and all its earthly trappings. China is closing the stable door before the horse bolts. Chinese authorities have banned advertisements for luxury products on the country's official state radio and television channels. CNN reports that the move is "an apparent attempt to douse growing social frustration in the wealth gap between the country's rich and poor". It is also aimed at stopping corruption conducted through luxury gift-giving.