China’s Century
China
December 2007
By Dan Murdoch

“In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of.
In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.”Confucius

DID you know that China is where it’s at?
For the next century this is the best seat in the house. Sorry Old Europe with your entrenched socialism, stifling history and petty prejudice. Bollocks to America and the military industrial. Russia? You’re so 1900s.
This is China’s Century.
In the last 20 years the country has transformed from communist to consumerist. From Mao tunic to Prada miniskirt. From global pariah to global power.
And the next 20?
Watch the country rocket to world leader. See our rulers scream in terror as the juggernaut overtakes, listen to the scare stories, the rhetoric, the flood of cheap goods, the outsourcing, the military build up, oooh the pain of the West as it loses its crown.
This is China’s century and we’re all in it.

China gets such a rough ride in the press. It is seen as a threat, an economic threat, a political threat- evil communists, repressive regime, no freedom of speech, it’s a one party system. The US must be twice as good; it has a two party system.
In my three weeks here I have only visited cities: Xilinhaote, Beijing, Xi’an and Kunming. I have no idea about the countryside, I have little idea of the political situation. But from what I have seen at street level, whoever is in charge has gripped modernity by the wallet.
The cities are exploding, booming, bursting at the seams with development. You can taste the progress in the air: it’s the smell of car exhausts, coffee, and perfume. It’s touch screen mobile phones and wireless internet, skyscrapers and shopping malls, dancing cranes hovering around new buildings that grow a storey a second, every second, day and night. Armani vies with Apple for attention; do I want a rain mac or an Apple Mac? David Beckham, Kate Moss and their fragile ilk pout down from the billboards to help me decide.

I don’t know how many people can afford this stuff. How many have been left out by the new China. When a slap up meal costs a dollar, how many people can spend $30 on a shirt?
Those who can- the new commercial class of the new China- are well-dressed city-dwellers, funky, fashionable, mobile phones, MP3 players, digital cameras, little leather handbags, big leather wallets.

The web is big. All the guesthouses we stayed in had free wifi, as did plenty of restaurants, cafes and bars. It is censored- no BBC and even my own blogspot site is banned. But you can easily get around it with a proxy server (www.anonymouse.org).
And with the explosion in web use has come a surge in free speech and criticism, which in many ways has helped facilitate the new China.
The government still runs the Great Firewall of China, a wonder of the modern world, and even Google has kowtowed, censoring its own search engine.
But in an increasingly net savvy society, how long can this last?
And with freedom of speech comes criticism of the government, and political change.
China doesn’t do change quickly. It doesn’t share the West’s obsession with youth (Michael Howard too old to lead the Tories at 66), and its rulers are in their 60s, 70s and 80s. Political change is slower and more deliberate.
But it is happening.
Be prepared. This is where it’s at.
This is China’s Century.

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Endsmrdanmurdoch@gmail.com
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