February 23, 1997

The Death Of China`s 'Radish' Questions Genie Reform

"May we walk with you and practice English?"

This is the genie let out of the communist bottle 18 years ago by Deng Xaioping, retired chairman of China who died last week. Two, courteous Chinese college students asked me and my wife the question in 1979.

It was only two weeks after Deng opened his country to selected tourists following 30 years behind Mao Zedong's Bamboo Curtain. Now, the world watches to see if Deng's successor, Jiang Zemin, will try to stuff the genie back or "travel the capitalist road" full speed.

The approach that will affect the world's largest population is of great import. Does the future hold revolutionary upheaval, World War III or economic competition crippling the social gains of democracy?

The eagerness of young Chinese to meet Americans surprised and delighted us during our tour of Beijing, Kunming, Nanning, and Kwangchow. This was followed by a look-see at bustling Hong Kong. Friendly Chinese filled our evenings with talk of politics and customs when we were encouraged to walk alone on the streets.

They were intensely interested in the workings of capitalism. Drive-through banks, shopping malls, labor unions, lipstick, and secret ballots were incomprehensible to them.

China suffered immensely by Mao's last-ditch effort to hold onto power through his "cultural revolution." The aim was to preserve the peasant system from which communism grew. Thousands of teachers, scientists, writers and professionals were killed or imprisoned.

During ten years of Red Guard tyranny, formal education was scorned as "western decadence." For a full decade, Deng was exiled to labor on a farm commune. Not one college student was graduated in China.

As the nation neared anarchy, Mao relented. One of his last acts was to invite President Richard Nixon to China and reopen diplomatic relations.

Upon Mao's death in 1976, the Communist Party called Deng to the chairmanship. He was a pragmatist who was fond of declaring, "It makes no difference whether a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice."

Deng's critics called him a "radish" -- red only on the outside. Nevertheless, he launched a Four Modernizations program emphasizing reforms in agriculture, science, technology and national defense.

Peasants were allowed to own a garden plot 40x40 feet and keep the profit realized from the sale of vegetables grown on it. In the cities, family shops could operate without government control. Factory managers were encouraged to consider supply and demand in making decisions. Production and morale soared throughout the country.

Most importantly, Deng reopened the schools. He ordered all grades from third through college to study English. The road to modernization was to be through education. The vehicle chosen was American-style language.

Li and Chang were typical of the many young Chinese who introduced themselves back then. As we walked and talked, scores of other Chinese of all ages tagged along -- eager to participate.

Chang was just entering college at age 30. The cultural revolution had marched him as a teenager into the fields to be "re-educated." He said his people expect too much too soon. He believed communism could be modified to bring his nation up to capitalist standards by the year 2000.

"It will be a triumph for socialism," declared Chang.

I cautioned, "Don't forget Chairman Mao's Great Leap Forward in which industrialization failed for lack of investment capital, modern technology and worker motivation.

After a long pause, Chang replied, "I have thought much about this. Sometimes I think capitalism is not so bad."

The crowd applauded.

Li was younger and relatively untouched by past excesses. He expected China to leap into the modern world "very soon."

I asked, "What do you expect from modernization?" Li replied, "A nice family, a well furnished flat, a refrigerator and an automobile."

"What will happen if you have not obtained these things by the time you have children?" I countered.

After a thoughtful silence, Li answered, "The revolutionary spirit is strong in the Chinese people!"

Again, the crowd applauded.

The yearning for freedom and comforts of capitalism surfaced sooner than any of us that night anticipated.

In early 1987, college students mounted a massive protest in Bejing's Tianamen Square against the lack of free speech and civil rights. Their parade symbol was a replica of the Statue of Liberty.

Deng wanted a modern nation, but still socialist. He sent in troops to crush the demonstration by rifle fire. More than 5,000 English-speaking students were killed, 10,000 injured, and hundreds of organizers imprisoned.

The freedom-genie was thought to have been stuffed back into the bottle. Deng got modernization but with grievous abuses of civil rights. Convict labor, substandard wages, and political suppression makes China's products cheap on the world market.

It should be no surprise, therefore, that the United States trade deficit with China of $39.5 billion last year was second only to that of Japan's $47.7 billion. Together, these Asian giants generated almost three-fourths of our world trade imbalance of $114.2 billion -- the highest in eight years.

With Deng gone, and English-speaking ardent-capitalist Hong Kong to be annexed by China in July, we wait to see whether Jiang can keep the genie prisoner.

My bet is on Chang and Li that he can't.

PARTING SHOTS

"In carrying on your government, why should you use killing? It is the unprincipled for the good of the unprincipled." -- Confucius, 479 B.C.

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Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr has resigned the Whitewater investigation effective Aug. 1. In a press conference, he emphasized three times that it is the "duty

of citizens with information to come forward." Translation: he has not yet found a smoking gun, only a smoked herring.

By Lindsey Williams, columnist for Sun Coast Media Group newspapers