It's been 24 years since I took my 84-year-old father to the Peoples Republic of China. Fear not, I am not going to recap our experiences there those long many years ago. But to refresh your memory, let me give you a single paragraph to set the scene. An international news organization informed me that they were organizing a trip to the Peoples Republic of China and that it would be virtually a "free" trip for reporters. Our only requirement was that we return home and write about the "emerging Peoples Republic." My father had always wanted to go to China. I thought that he was in good health and that he would enjoy the trip and I would also go to do the writing part.
Suffice it to say that my dad about froze to death and I did likewise. Although, the trip was designed as one to show the United States that China had become of age and now was promoting tourism.
It was the first of January and boy was it cold in China. They had advertised to us that we would be put up in brand new tourist-class hotels. Well, our first two nights were put up in such a hotel, but the staff had not conquered the task of the heating system. However, we were relatively comfortable. But this was the only time that we were comfortable. At other times we just had to bundle up to keep warm. But my dad did get the opportunity to walk about 100 yards on the Great Wall of China. That's enough about our earlier trip. Let's look at the Peoples Republic 24 years later, as reported in a recent copy of "Newsweek" magazine.
It's also important to note that the Summer Olympic Games will give China a chance to showcase its impressive and significant economic progress since 1984. However, according to this current article, China also has a long way to go in "…building a healthy society where differences of opinion on politics, philosophy and faith are respected as fundamental human rights." In other words China still needs reforms.
However, there are good signs that the Peoples Republic is getting more in step with the world in general. A good sign is that news reporters now are welcome to come to China to witness what has been described as "…what may be the fastest, most far-reaching national metamorphosis in human history."
The article also notes that many people are of the opinion that the Tiananmen Square incident was all about democracy. "They are wrong," the writer says. "Economics also had a big role. After a decade of impressive but halting economic reforms, inflation was running wild, and although farmers were making money for once, city dwellers were lagging – especially on university campuses, where labs and classrooms were as decrepit as the housing.
The article also notes that China's sense of its own weaknesses casts a shadow over its foreign policy. "It is unique," the article states, "as a world power, the first in modern history to be once rich (on aggregated terms) and poor (in per capita terms). China sees itself as a developing country, with hundreds of millions of peasants to worry about. It views many of the issues on which it is pressed – global warming, human rights, among them – as rich-country problems. China has been rather slow in showing that it wants to be a responsible "stakeholder"in the international market.
Some scholars and policy intellectuals (and some top military leaders in the Pentagon) look at the rise of China and see the seeds of inevitable great-power conflict and perhaps even war. Look at history, they say. When a power rises it inevitably disturbs the balance of power, unsettles the international order and seeks a place in the sun. Some believe that Sino-U.S. conflict is inevitable.
This must be the year that we craft a serious long-term China policy.
Barron Mills came to Asheboro in March 1955 when he bought The Randolph Guide and became its editor and publisher. He sold the paper in 1991 but still lives in Asheboro.
