2016-06-13   Peter Wilkinson           Peter's previous articles

Reflections on China trip

My wife, Hae Sook, and I returned home to Melbourne from China on Sunday, 1 May, both weary from the long journey home.  However, after 21 days of extensive travel through that ‘big’ nation of 1.4 billion people, we have been staggered not only at the size of the country and its people, but at the progress that has been made since Deng Xiao-Ping, the Paramount Leader from 1978-1997,opened the nation up to the outside modern world. 

 Over and over our frank and well-informed Chinese guides referred to the errors of the Dowager Empress CixI of the late Qing Dynasy, who effectively ran the nation for 47 years, from 1861 to 1908. She had refused to accept the modern Western models of governance, believing they were detrimental to Chinese dynastic power, and placed the Guangzu Emperor under house arrest for supporting those seeking reform.  She would not tolerate anything that might jeopardize the preservation of the dynasty.  Late in life, however, after the Boxer Rebellion, the invasion of the European armies,  and the threat of Japanese invasion, she did begin to make some institutional changes and was prepared to allow a process for turning China into a constitutional monarchy. But it was already too late.  Her conservative attitudes and way of thinking and her preparedness to only accept those modern ideas and policies which she thought would not infringe on her own power, left the nation in great peril and not at all well positioned to confront the challenges which were already forming.

 Following the Communist takeover of the government and nation in 1949, and during Mao Tse-Tung’s chairmanship, there was a great fear that Mao would be succeeded by his son, and a new dynasty arise. That fear was only averted after Mao sent his son to fight in the Korean War where he was killed in a US bombing raid. When Mao died, the people had had enough of his Cultural Revolution, which had wrought nothing but havoc on them and the country. Although not favoured by Mao as his successor, Deng Xiao-Ping took control of the nation in 1978 and opened it to the modern world. He became the architect of a new brand of socialist thinking which combined Marxist-Leninist ideology with pragmatic market  economy practices, including foreign investment, participation in the global market, and private competition.  The transformation of the nation since 1978 is eye-boggling, and everywhere apparent.

 Visually, the economic development is staggering and pervasive. The cities are enormous, still expanding and rising. There are literally 1000s of high-rise apartment buildings of 30 levels or more. In every town and city the skyline in dotted with cranes. The smallest city we visited was Xi’an (9 million), with others much larger:  Chengdu (14 million),  Beijing (23 million), Shanghai (25 million) and Chongqing (33 million).  Modern freeways (3 lanes each way) and elevated city expressways (3 lanes each way) are everywhere, as are underground metro rail systems.  All the big cities have them and they are being continually extended.   Shanghai currently has 16 lines with 400 kms of track and 100s of stations. Another 2 lines and 200 kms of track are currently being laid.  The MagLev (magnetic levitation) train, transporting air travellers from downtown Shanghai to the airport 30 kms away, travels at 431 km/hr and completes the journey in just over 7 minutes.   Almost all of this development is possible without great argument because the Government owns 100% of the land which it leases to various sectors for set periods: 70 years for residential, 50 years for factories and 40 years for commercial.  When a new freeway is needed, the lease holders are told to move and they are paid compensation for the inconvenience.  Home owners are provided with new apartments and some compensation.  When the Three Gorges Dam was being built at the beginning of the millennium some 1.1 million people and their ancestral graves were relocated to a string of new cities.  The old towns and villages are now 70-80 metres under water.  This year alone, 2.5 million rural residents living in poverty will be moved into new dwellings in the cities and out of poverty.  Statistics published during our tour stated that there were some 277 million internal migrants within the nation, almost all of them rural workers seeking employment in the cities.  Compare that number with the total population of the USA - 330 million.

 Concern for the environment is pervasive.  Although the cities are crowded, high rise apartments everywhere, and the roads chockers, the areas set aside for new and old public gardens and street plantation, within and outside the cities, are vast, and used daily.  Wilderness forests, especially in the mountain areas, are abundant and the overall sense you experience is one of greenness and cleanliness. We experienced no pollution at all during our stay, although the roads are clogged with millions of cars, trucks and buses – 6 million cars in Beijing alone. China is now the No 1 country for motor vehicle sales and there seems no limit to the people’s appetite for this form of transport.  And for every car there must be 2-3 motor scooters, almost all of them battery powered, deathly silent and a danger to the unwary.  Electric  cars are now high on the government’s agenda.

 What was noticeably absent was a visible Christian presence.  I could only spot 3 churches in all our travels, the last being the old gothic Great Cathedral of the Holy Mother  located in the previous French Concession in downtown Shanghai and presently undergoing a major restoration.  The Chinese guides were quick to tell us that there was freedom of religion in China , so long as the religious group did not espouse or promote anything which was contrary to the policies and programs of the government.  During the last week of our tour, the Chinese Parliament passed new legislation allowing an expanded presence for NGOs (Non-Government Organisations) into which category all religious groups fall, but insisting on closer monitoring and increased government regulation and authorisation. Many Chinese who have contact with Europeans have adopted Christian or European given names – our guides called themselves Michael, Peter John, Prisca, Nick, Annie – but they seem to have no religious significance.  After quizzing our guides about religious beliefs on several occasions, they gave the very clear impression that they and their generation were not really concerned about religion, but overwhelmingly focused on achieving a better economic future for themselves and their families. They were also aware that their country, though still developing, was on a fast track to world leadership and that the future was bright.  They were very pleased that China had engaged with the modern world, for this monumental policy shift, inaugurated by Deng Xiao-Ping, had lifted them, as a people, out of backwardness and poverty, and onto the road to becoming a developed nation with hope and opportunity, and a significant role in global affairs.  As one guide told us: “the greatest achievement of the Communist Government of China is that today there is no longer a single person who is dying of hunger”.

 Recently the Chinese Government lifted the restriction on couples allowed only one child, and they may now have two children.  The feedback we got on this change was that it would probably not be acted upon, as the cost of raising and educating a child to tertiary level is very high, and young couples are also bound to care for their parents.  Several of our guides, who were only children themselves, indicated that they were caring for 5 persons: their own child and two sets of elderly parents.  In the future, with increasing longevity, only children may have to care for both parents and grandparents, a heavy load indeed.

 Let me also make mention of these achievements by way of comparison with the Catholic Church.  In 1965, 13 years before Deng Xiao-Ping took the decision to open China to the modern world, Vatican II had taken a similar decision with its document Gaudium et Spes, urging the Catholic Church to fully engage with the modern world. However, apart from some minor initiatives, nothing substantial took place. Church leaders retreated to the comfort zone of the ‘old’ world and left the Church to become ever more irrelevant to the lives of ordinary Christians and ordinary people of other or no belief. The leadership in Rome and elsewhere failed to understand the enormity of their error of judgment, and whereas China opened up and engaged fully, the Church, thanks to a fearful leadership, did not.  Like the Dowager Empress Cixi, the Church’s leaders, with their conservative attitudes and way of thinking, remained fearful of accepting the ideas and forms of governance of the modern world. They were not prepared to contemplate anything which might  infringe on their own power and were prepared to allow the  Gospel message to stay locked away in the ecclesiastical cupboard.  The results have been obvious for all to see. Only now, 50 years after the Council, have we got a leader, Francis, who is prepared to engage with the modern world and to make the message of Jesus appealing to contemporary men and women.  One can only hope that he will be with us for some time to come.”

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