The new China: China's top leader steps down as economy booms

Current Events, Dec 6, 2002

BEIJING, China -- "To grow rich is always glorious," a saying of Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997), China's late leader, seems to have become the rallying cry of modern China.

China's economy is now 20 times larger than it was in 1980, a record of economic growth unequaled by any other nation. The great engine that has driven this amazing growth is private industry. Chinese factories are producing more consumer goods than ever before, changing the lives of China's 1.3 billion people.

Chinese citizens can now buy the latest TV sets, refrigerators, jeans, and computers. Chinese cities are dotted with McDonald's and Starbucks and video stores. Chinese kids zoom around on skateboards, listen to hip-hop music, and look to buy the latest fashions. More importantly, for the first time in China's long and famine-filled history, most Chinese now have enough food to eat.

Having such things may not seem like such a big deal to Americans, but it represents a revolution to China's people, who have been desperately poor for centuries.

Jiang Zemin

No one has been a bigger booster of China's economic success than Jiang Zemin, the man who has led China for the last 13 years.

At the 16th Communist Party Congress, held in Beijing in November, Jiang addressed the 2,114 delegates like a proud company president talking about a record-breaking year. To thunderous applause, Jiang praised free enterprise and capitalism. He said that the Communist Party will now welcome business people and capitalists into its ranks. The new Communist Party, said Jiang, will no longer confine itself to farmers and workers, but will now also welcome business people and entrepreneurs.

"The world is changing," said Jiang. "We must adapt ourselves ... [and] free our minds from the shackles of outdated notions, practices, and systems, from the erroneous and dogmatic interpretations of [Communism]."

Jiang's speech was no ordinary speech, and it was no ordinary occasion. The congress, which takes place every five years, is an important event for Chinese Communists, something like the U.S. president's State of the Union address. Thousands of workers had toiled all week to prepare for the congress. Cleaners removed 600,000 wads of chewing gum from the concrete crevices of Tiananmen Square near the Great Hall of the People, where the congress was held. Red Communist flags fluttered near the hall.

Who's Hu?

Jiang, 76, had another bit of information for the delegates. After ruling China for 13 years, he is stepping down from his government and party posts. He is resigning from his posts as head of the party and as head of the armed forces. In March, Jiang will officially resign as China's president.

Jiang's successor will be Hu Jintao, 59, who is currently vice president but little known outside government circles. Hu has promised to carry on Jiang's pro-business policy and to welcome capitalists into the Communist Party with open arms.

That policy would have amazed and astounded Mae Zedong (1893-1976) and his supporters. Mae came to power in 1949. He immediately set to work "reforming" China's 3,000-year-old civilization. (See the TimeTrip.)

Under Mao's rule, the government took over all property. Government officials, not business people, ran factories. Mae disapproved of all products that came from Western capitalist nations--including rock music and colorful clothes. Everyone, men and women, wore the same gray uniform.

In 1977, a year after mao's death, Deng Xiaoping consolidated his power and took over the Communist Party. He put China on a road that allowed people to own their own businesses and run their own farms. Jiang has widened that road to capitalism.

But there are some cracks, if not potholes, in the road. Poverty is still widespread and deep in rural areas. Under Mao's system, every worker was guaranteed a job. Under Jiang, unemployment has grown to 20 percent in some areas of the country.

Don't Mess With the Party

Chinese people today can dress as they like and generally do as they please, so long as the party does not consider them a threat.

The party has met any organized challenge to its power with ferocity. The government's two-year-old crackdown on the Falun Gong, a religious movement involving millions, is one example. The crackdown has resulted in hundreds dead and thousands jailed.

"You can say whatever you want in China," said Lin Xiaobo, a literary critic who spent years in jail, "as long as you do it alone."

Unless what you say is on the Internet, that is. China has 30,000 Internet police to clamp down on dissent online.

A Chinese law, passed in August, bans Web sites from "producing, posting or disseminating pernicious information that may jeopardize state security and disrupt social stability."

Still, many Chinese seem to be more concerned about getting rich than about achieving personal freedom.

"I care about myself and the things around me," says Li, a teenage student. "As long as [government policies] help improve people's standard of living, I'm going to support them."