Introductory Post

I've had a number of sites and blogs relating to things both Chinese and political. This blog is meant to continue that endeavour with posts and comments on articles, blogs and polls relating to events, trends and developments now unfolding in China.

By way of introduction I am reposting an account of my experiences in China over a period of nearly 30 years. Although it was first posted in 2008 I feel my observations still hold true.

China from the Inside Out

I’m a Mandarin speaking European American who has visited China multiple times over the last 25 years. I've seen vast transformations in the socioeconomic system and cultural practices there.

When I first arrived in Beijing in the early 1980s the Beijing Airport was straight out of Casablanca and we drove into the capital on a long, straight single lane road through the Chinese countryside, which eventually flowed into Chang'an Ave and past the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. There were hardly any cars on the streets, and men and women were dressed in plain, austere, monochrome clothing as they whizzed past on a blizzard of bicycles. The Friendship Hotel where I stayed was one of the premier hotels in town and would have been considered rather dingy by Soviet standards of the time (ed. It has since been remodelled, refurbished and modernized and is now quite comfortable). Being married to a Chinese woman we eventually settled in at her family's residence in the section of Beijing reserved for members of the Chinese Science Academy, called Zhongguancun, not far from Beida (Peking University), as my retired father-in-law was a revered botanist who had gotten his PhD in the US during the 1940s.

My In-laws apartment, where my wife had grown up, was a sparsely furnished, spacious yet non-ostentatious,  apartment. There was a single party-line phone serving the entire apartment block. Life was very quiet and serene, the daily routine almost bucolic. It consisted of getting up at the crack of dawn, rinsing ones face with water from a thermos and then venturing outside to have a bowl of doufu nao (literally Tofu Brains, a silken doufu pudding with various condiments ladled on top) and a you tiao (deep-fried Chinese cruller). My father-in-law and I would then walk a block or two to an athletic field where we would jog around the oval track a few times, eventually settling in to do Taijichuan exercises with a group of elderly Chinese. Afterwards I would bike with the rest of Beijing to our respective danweis (work units), which for me was the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology where I was conducting doctoral research. In the late afternoon I would bike home with the rest of Beijing and sit down for some Chinese home cooking prepared by my mother-law, my wife and sister-in-law. Afterwards we would go outside in the evening air. The women would gossip with the neighbors and visit with friends. The kids would kick around a soccer ball or play a variety of kid's games. The men folk would gather around in clutches to smoke and tell stories or play Chinese chess beneath a street lamp until it got too dark to continue. Weekends we would bike with our two young kids to the numerous parks and historic sites in Beijing stopping at noodle stands for lunch. My life in Beijing was nothing special. I visited many homes that were no different from my in-laws. These were the homes of army veterans, workers, professors, every walk of life. Life was normal, safe and secure. I reveled in its quiet, simple, stress free pleasures. Now given the hectic pace of life in China, cell phone in hand, with its complexities and anxieties, those simpler times are looked back with nostalgia by many, including myself.

Socialist morality prevailed in China during those years. I travelled extensively in China then, with my family, with colleagues, both Chinese and American, or alone. If you left a hairbrush behind in your train compartment it would be returned to you at your next hotel room. Socialism was also practised economically. Food staples, health care, apartments and most everything else was subsidized and unbelievably cheap. Pay differentials were at a minimum. Statistics show that the GINI, the index of income disparity, was one of the lowest in the world, about 28 on a scale of 100 (its now in the upper 40s both in China and the US).  I could get by in China on a few dollars a month. Consumer goods were very utilitarian but readily available. Socialist ideology was still spoon fed on the 2 or 3 broadcast stations that were available, although the excesses of the Cultural Revolution were quickly receding. People, nevertheless, were very reticent about any politically sensitive topics and they were seldom discussed. Living in a Chinese household in Beijing and travelling around the city independently did not present any problem and I never felt that I was being watched or monitored in any fashion. My Chinese family never felt any repercussions in hosting me in their home.

Over the next decade and a half, China slowly began to change as it opened up to the West. By 1989 there was foment in the air. The Soviet Union and the Communist bloc were disintegrating. The status of China as a communist led nation hung in the balance. Reforms had begun. Many had a negative impact on everyday life as the socialist iron rice bowl was being dismantled, subsidies were being reduced, inflation was beginning to rear its head,  and corruption and nepotism were running rampant as State Owned Enterprises were being converted into market oriented corporations or privatized. Layoffs and plant closings were  a new phenomenon in China and very disquieting. Many of the reforms that were supposed to bring economic benefit were only just being ramped up and the many half measures that were implemented only whet the appetite for more substantive change. Inflation, corruption and nepotism, the loss of job security and economic subsidies led to massive demonstrations akin to what was then occurring in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. During this period of instability and loss of ideological direction Western ideas of "freedom and democracy" had a significant influence on many youthful students and workers. I was in Beijing during the late Spring of 1989 and witnessed it all. My American and British colleagues were staying at the Xiyuan Hotel, just blocs away from the location where the most severe actions took place. I will not recount what I witnessed first hand then, but China slowly recovered from the shock of those days, eventually leading to the initiation of full-fledged market reforms and the vast amount of economic growth and modernization seen over the last two decades. 

I continued my research in China until the late 1990s but then went on to other things. I didn't return to China for a decade, until May 2008. The China I saw was totally transformed. The Beijing Airport was now a massively efficient, ultramodern edifice that seemed to engulf the countryside. A multi-lane superhighway connects the airport to a network of expressways that gird the city. As I drove into Beijing I saw row upon row of high-rise apartment buildings. When I arrived at Zhongguancun (the Academia Sinica zone) I couldn't recognize the area, it was now full of glittering, new office buildings and thoroughfares. I also got to see similar changes in Wuhan the capital of Hubei province in central China. My Chinese colleagues and I travelled from Wuhan, at the confluence of the Han and Yangtze Rivers in eastern Hubei, to Yunxian, the archeological site where I conducted research in the 1990s, in the Chinese countryside towards the provinces far west, not far from Sichuan where the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake struck. The last time I travelled there, over a decade before, it took nearly two days over a two lane highway, similar to a back country road here in the U.S. Now we travelled along a multi-lane superhighway, identical to a US Interstate and made the same journey in six hours. Today China is crisscrossed with similar expressways, stitching together the country’s length and breadth (ed. In 2010 I returned to China for a conference and travelled from Wuhan to Shanghai on a high-speed bullet train. China now has the most extensive network of bullet trains anywhere in the world, putting Amtrak to shame).

Rural China in the 1980s and early 1990s was characterized by the  “responsibility system” (family farming plots on land leased long-term from the local jurisdiction) which led to an economic resurgence in the countryside, the rural commune system having long since been abandoned. The more recent trend has been for the cities to outstrip the farmlands in the pace of development, with a widening urban/rural income gap accompanied by the movement of tens of millions of migrant workers to China’s cities. Nevertheless, new two and three story farmhouses are now seen throughout the countryside and county-level towns are thriving. This was all reflected in the tragedy of the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan in May 2008. I’d been in many similar areas in China and construction standards were not well adhered to. Especially during the early boom years of the late 1980s and 90s many corners were cut to save money, much of which was probably absconded by corrupt officials. China builds with brick, concrete and tile. In the rugged, mountainous regions of Sichuan, where towns have populations in the tens of thousands, vs. the few hundred you’d find living in similar areas sate-side, it’s no wonder that casualties were high. For China is no paradise. There are inequalities and abuses that occur. And the citizenry can be scathing in their criticism of incompetent and/or corrupt authorities in power. Many schools that cater to the less privileged collapsed during the earthquake, killing thousands of China’s daughters and sons. This should never have been allowed to happen. But China responded as one. The whole country rallied and troops and other first responders rushed to the rescue. State leaders, especially Premier Wen Jiabao, took personal command and were camped on the scene, consoling the victims. Concerts were held nationwide to raise funds and a lively competition ensued as China’s newly wealthy celebrities were challenged to contribute large sums of money to aid the relief effort. Foreign help was solicited and welcomed. This was truly the New China functioning at its best. One of the most moving occurrences took place a week after the earthquake. At 2 PM sirens blared throughout the entire country and all traffic and activity stopped for three minutes. I was on the road in Xiamen at the time and traffic came to a halt, pedestrians stood in place. I assume this happened simultaneously throughout the country. The earthquake had a profound effect in China. Many praised the government’s response. Many others also criticized the conditions that led to the deaths of so many children. But the overwhelming feeling was a deep sense of loss as epitomized by the following poem published in the Chinese press:

All of a sudden we lost our most beloved,

Becoming orphans.

Above our heads all is dark,

Our world is changed.

No one can give an answer for what we ask,

Our family, our beloved.

Your words yesterday still warm our hearts,

We cannot understand what is happening,

And nature's cold-blood.

We cannot live without you,

But reality is that we had to part.

Being so far away,

Can you still remember the happy days in our small yard,

Our wailing and crying?

We beg you not to leave us in the dark,

We want to find you.

However, one second, one minute, one hour passes,

You cannot reply.

But we know you want to come back to us,

You saved us, giving up your own life,

Until we were finally pulled out,

Under the sun’s strong rays of hope.

Are you praying for us, dear Mom?

But how can you leave us to strangers, dear Mom?

One day, two days, they say you will never be back, dear Mom.

We promise not to annoy you anymore,

Please don't go away, dear Mom,

We are your children all our lives,

And we are missing you so much, dear Mom

We are missing you so much…

Zhao Bo

Let us not be too quick to condemn a whole society for its shortcomings. We have enough of our own to worry about.

While in China I had the opportunity to talk with friends and relatives about the current situation there, as well as make my own observations. There are a number of issues that have garnered a large amount of press dealing with China. I will address a number of these below (ed. These observations were made when I visited China in 2008)

1. The situation in Tibet. China is a multinational country with 58 recognized national minorities. These minority nationalities all have well delineated rights and privileges based on their special minority status, allotting them a heightened degree of autonomy and exemption from certain obligations (for instance, the one child per family policy). Tibet is recognized as an Autonomous Region of the PRC and on paper, at least, has a considerable amount of autonomy. In practice the central government has full control, but is nevertheless constrained in certain ways by its constitutional limits. As in this country what’s written in the constitution is not always applied as it should be, and there is a legitimate demand by Tibetans for the full implementation of their national rights. Both the Communist and Nationalist parties consider Tibet an integral part of China. There is a long history of interaction between the two peoples. The Dalai Lama also recognizes that Tibet is part of the PRC. The Dalai Lama is a hero in many quarters in the West and revered by many, but not all Tibetans. From my perspective, however, (which readers are free to challenge) he is just like any other religious leader, and represents a superstitious ideology with a façade of pious reasonableness. The history of Lamist Buddhism, when it had state power, is replete with all sorts of abuses, from the abject enslavement of the peasantry, to the sequestration of whole generations of males in austere disciplinarian monasteries and the adulation of each new Dalai Lama, chosen at random from amidst the population, as a child god-king. (ed. Read by recent posts on Tibet for more info)
   
   As regards religious freedom in China I can attest to the fact that Chinese people can practice their chosen religion without undue interference as long as it doesn’t impinge on state prerogatives. In Beijing, Wuhan, Xiamen,  and elsewhere I’ve seen Christian bookstores with a variety of Christian paraphernalia displayed. I’ve visited Christian churches and entire Christian towns in some of the most remote regions of China. Young Buddhist monks with shaven heads and tan tunics can be seen walking the streets in many cities of China and Buddhist temples attract 1000s of people daily who kowtow and make offerings.
   
   Returning to Tibet, in this age of nation-states it must also be acknowledged that maintenance of China’s territorial integrity, a legacy of its imperial past, must be accepted as a starting point for any discussion regarding it’s future. It may be argued that the Soviet Union was likewise a product of Russian imperialism and that its breakup can serve as a prototype for the dismemberment of China. The Soviet Union was, however, just that, a free Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and its peaceful breakup basically bore out that reality. China has a different history and its constituent parts are not free to disengage in the same fashion, just as our States cannot secede. In this regard it is no different from any other nation state. There should be no greater onus put on China than any other country with restive minorities, including our own. We cannot expect China to voluntarily commit suicide by relinquishing control of its minority populated border regions. China has problems regarding the proper treatment of its minority peoples, just as we do. It also has some done many things right. Let the Chinese work out their own problems without undue interference. This attitude does not preclude criticism of how the central government behaves, but protests such as those directed against the Beijing Olympics, in my opinion are unwarranted just as a boycott of the Calgary Olympics in 1988 over Canadian policy towards its aboriginal people would have been.

2. The Beijing Olympics. The Chinese people throughout the world were proud to host the 2008 Olympic games, just as citizens of countries anywhere else have been. China went all out to create new ultra-modern sports venues in Beijing, some of which I saw. The “controversy” surrounding the Beijing Games was always a non-starter. China cannot be compared to Nazi Germany and the 2008 Beijing Games cannot be compared in any fashion to the infamous Berlin Games of 1936 or the Moscow Games of 1980. China does not adhere to a racist ideology and China is not an expansionist power as was Germany in the 1930s or occupying a foreign nation as the Soviets did in Afghanistan (and isn’t it ironic that at the time of the 2008 Beijing Games we occupied both that country and Iraq!). The protests against the Olympic flame relay were to my mind totally inappropriate. They were ostensibly directed against Chinese repression in Tibet and Chinese support of the Sudanese government and its involvement in the Darfur genocide. These protests were extremely disingenuous. Where were the protests against the continuing abuse of our native peoples when we held the Olympics in LA or Atlanta? Where were the protests of the 1992 Spanish Olympics in Barcelona against their policies in the Basque region or the 2000 Australian Olympics in Sidney against their policies towards their aboriginal populations? How can anyone protest Chinese behaviour in Sudan when compared to our aggression against Iraq or our previous support of fascist dictatorships in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala, Greece and on and on? It is again, holding China to a higher standard than we expect of other countries or ourselves, for that matter.

3. China’s Industrialization and Outsourcing. China’s economy has been growing at a double-digit rate for nearly two decades. If that pace continues into the future China will be an advanced, middle-income industrial nation by mid-century. A lot of baggage (Made in China, of course) and manifold abuses come with that remarkable achievement. Our Chinese counterparts are now confronting many of the problems that we have encountered and addressed with varying degrees of success or failure over the last century. China achieved its economic transformation at break neck speed and is still in the throes of remarkable economic and social upheavals. These changes took the West centuries to achieve amid much blood, sweat and tears and have occurred in China over mere decades. I could delineate a litany of problems that China confronts. These include environmental degradation, mine safety, contaminated foods, fraudulent goods, sweatshop abuses, corporate corruption, etc., etc. All industrializing countries have faced similar problems, as we have and still do. Along with these problems have come both governmental and non-governmental responses. The Chinese government is accountable to public opinion. Its legitimacy is predicated on public acceptance and acquiescence. When the Chinese people feel that the government is no longer responsive they do not hesitate to rebel. How can the Chinese people’s propensity to rebellion and resistance be squared with their supposed passivity in the face of government repression? It can’t. The Chinese accept their government because it has maintained its mandate. In fact the Pew International Attitudes Survey consistently shows high approval ratings of the government by the Chinese people on the order of 85% or better. There are avenues for redress of grievances. There is investigative journalism and exposes of governmental abuses. There are protests and civil disobedience. (ed. Over the last few years Chinese social media on the internet has blossomed and although at times censored still allows for the venting of public outrage over scandals and the failings of government officials). Sometimes Chinese protests are portrayed as symptoms of failure of the Chinese system of governance. I’d rather see them as symptoms of a system of governance that is still in the process of defining itself.

4. "Slave wages." Quite frequently it’s alleged that Chinese employees work for “slave wages”. I had a number of discussions with friends, colleagues and family members about living conditions while in China. The bottom line is that Chinese wages have to be viewed relative to living costs. In terms of its economic importance, the Chinese Yuan is equivalent to the US Dollar. In many respects there’s a good correspondence. The average Chinese wage is about 3000 Yuan/month, relatively similar in amount if not value to the average US wage of $3000/month. Living costs can be evaluated in light of this correspondence. For instance my son, when he worked in China for a year, rented a two-bedroom apartment in Xiamen for Y1300/month (US $195.00), relatively similar to the amount it would cost in dollars (US $1300.00). Obviously in US dollars it’s very cheap. The apartment easily accommodated three adults (there is a spare room that served as a third bedroom) at a cost of approximately Y450/month (US $30.00). As can be seen the Yuan is valued at about US $0.15. So a monthly wage of Y3000 is equivalent to US $450. That’s about $112.50/week or $2.80/hour. Some low-skilled migrant laborers from the countryside make about $1.00/hr. They tend to live in dormitories and send much of their income home (like American migrant workers). $1.00/hour is about 1/7 the prevailing US minimum wage rate, about what a US worker made 40 years ago (I remember making $1.50/hr working at a warehouse in Boston in 1971). By Chinese standards the average wage in China is thus equivalent to what an average worker makes in the US today. Of course a US manufacturer will prefer spending $2.00/hour rather than $20.00/hour, hence outsourcing. Its ridiculous to say that the Chinese worker has a slave wage, not when public bus transportation costs 20 Chinese cents, the equivalent of $0.03 and the average Chinese family has a savings rate of 20% (versus a negative savings rate in the US where we spend more than we earn, i.e. go into debt). So it’s important to keep things in perspective when comparing Chinese apples with US oranges.

As regards other issues of interest to Americans, I had a very interesting discussion with my college age Chinese nephew, Tiger. His English has come along and he hopes to study in the US next year (ed. He has since graduated with a degree in economics from the University of San Francisco and is now studying for an MBA). With my Chinese and his English we were able to communicate at a sophisticated level. I wanted to better understand Chinese perceptions of their domestic situation. One of our talks revolved around the degree of freedom experienced by a young person in China today. I asked Tiger about the degree of cultural and social freedom he experienced. When I first visited China, cultural freedom was still largely repressed and social mores were very conservative (no outward displays of public affection, etc.). Now the floodgates have opened. According to Tiger, and based on my own observations, there are no restrictions on cultural expression. Modern abstract art, music of every sort, western literature and Hollywood movies are all widely available. Social mores are totally transformed. Young people can dress in whatever outlandish fashion they like. Young people hold hands and kiss in public. Even LGBT people, long anathema in Chinese culture, but nonetheless quite common in classical Chinese literature, are now coming out. As regards educational freedom, no longer are you assigned a subject to study. You can pursue whatever educational goals you’re capable of achieving, and jobs are no longer assigned for life. Upward mobility is greater than in the US (ed. read this) and Horatio Alger stories abound.This goes hand in hand with the economic freedom to find a job to your liking, set up a small business or, if you’re entrepreneurial, a large corporation.

With this freedom have come loses as well. The so-called iron rice bowl has been smashed. Job security and social security are no longer as assured as they were twenty years ago. Some see this as a setback, others as a necessary re-adjustment towards a more social democratic system. (ed. In response to growing income inequality China is now establishing a social democratic style social safety net). So let’s look at the freedom ledger. When challenged my nephew Tiger admitted that in today’s China he felt that there was cultural freedom, social freedom, educational freedom and economic freedom. He was annoyed by the lack of political freedom and had an idealized notion of our two party political system. When I began griping about the political situation in the US Tiger began to understand its limitations, but I also began to appreciate some of what we take for granted. The conclusion I came to is that the political system in China needs to evolve and assuredly will. I asked my sister-in-law if she could have anticipated the changes she’s witnessed over the last twenty years. She said in retrospect she could. I asked if she expected similar changes to occur in the future, in particular politically. She answered in the affirmative. China is in a constant state of flux. Rapprochement between the Communist and Nationalist parties is on the agenda. My sister-in-law saw the possibility that the Nationalist party could enter into a political coalition with the Communists as in the early 1920s. I broached the idea of the CPC (Chinese Communist Party) dividing in two, with both parties adhering to the PRC’s constitution. Tiger thought that was a good idea, just so there was more accountability and the opportunity for some degree of political choice. I will go out on a limb and predict that something along these lines will occur in China by mid-century.

Well, those are some of my observations. I could go on and on and elaborate on many points. Let me conclude by saying that China is not our enemy. In many ways it is very similar to our own country. In other ways it is entirely different. Both the Chinese and American people are extremely proud of their countries and their histories. Let us live in peace and friendship.