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From The Times

August 23, 2008

The Chinese Dream has replaced America's

China's economy may be lagging behind the US, but it is miles ahead in optimism, dynamism, and patriotism

Martin Fletcher

In the magnificent new stadiums of their capital, in front of their fanatical compatriots, China's Olympians have walloped their American counterparts this past fortnight, capturing 16 more gold medals and ending the global supremacy that US athletes have enjoyed since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

It is an outcome that will only deepen the United States' present funk, with pundits sure to compare China's inexorable rise with America's decline, asking when the lines will cross.

The answer is not for a long time - if ever. By almost any measure the US remains in a different league. Its gross domestic product was $13.8trillion last year, dwarfing China's $3.2 trillion. GDP per capita was $46,000 to China's $5,300. Of the world's 30 largest companies, 11 are American and 3 Chinese, according to Fortune magazine.

But what is striking to casual visitors to China, however, is the extent to which its people have adopted the attitudes that made America great - the optimism, dynamism and patriotism, the can-do spirit, the determination to leave the next generation better off than one's own. In three weeks travelling around China last month, I found a country oozing with confidence.

The converse is also true. For now, at least, an America afflicted by economic recession, plunging house prices, collapsing banks, disastrous foreign ventures and dire political leadership is sunk in malaise.

How would the US have responded to an earthquake like the one that devastated Sichuan province in May? To judge by its response to Hurricane Katrina, not with the spirit, energy and self-reliance of the Chinese.

Throughout the stricken zone I found soldiers, contractors and volunteers clearing rubble, restoring services and erecting vast tracts of temporary housing with astonishing speed. Even more striking were the victims. Far from succumbing to self-pity or despair, or waiting for government assistance, they were striving to rebuild and recover as fast as possible, setting up makeshift shops, restaurants, surgeries and even mini-factories in the rubble of their homes. “The dead are dead. You don't want to die with them,” said Huoyong Bin, 40, who has lost his wife and father but has reopened his barber shop beneath an awning in what remains of the marketplace of Jiulong village.

In Henan province, in the tiny rural village of Zhoutan, I met the embodiment of what was once called the American Dream but might now be renamed the Chinese Dream.

His name was Zhou Shouheng, 27. He is one of tens of millions of uneducated peasants who have flocked to China's cities to secure better futures for their families. He works on building sites in Beijing, ten hours a day, seven days a week, returning home twice a year. He makes this sacrifice so that one day he can send his two children to university and they can share in China's new prosperity.

“I hope they can design great buildings, not just build them like me,” he said, adding that when he sees the fancy apartments and swish cars of wealthy Beijingers it merely inspires him to work still harder.

I also met young Americans who also see China as today's land of opportunity and had opened start-up businesses there. A 23-year-old Oklahoman has opened a simple pizza restaurant in a town in Gansu province, while a Texan tours Shanghai department stores with a video camera, offering a live feed and bargaining services to wealthy Americans sitting at home in their living rooms.

“Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country,” President Kennedy proclaimed at his inauguration in 1961. JFK would have approved of today's Chinese.

Zhou Shousheng was back in his village because the building sites in Beijing had been closed to clean the air for the Olympic Games. In the city of Yiwu, the world's largest market for Christmas decorations and countless other cheap goods, traders were suffering grievously because the pre-Olympic visa crackdown has kept foreign buyers away. None complained. They were happy to sacrifice for the greater good - a notion instilled from birth.

“It's the big wish of the 1.3 billion Chinese to have the Olympics,” one said. “If the West has fewer Father Christmases this year, it's worth it.”

For sheer dynamism the Beijing Iron and Steel Company takes some beating. For 89 years its giant plant has blanketed the capital with smoke and sulphur dioxide. The Olympics forced its closure, so the company is building a giant, state-of-the-art plant at Caofeidian, on the coast of Hebei province. About 40,000 labourers began work in March last year. Production will start in October - 20 months later.

The plant is surrounded by 140 square miles of tidal flats that are being reclaimed from the sea and will soon be covered in new petrochemical plants, power stations and other heavy industry. This is not unusual. Everywhere you go in China there are new highways, bridges, airports, railway stations - whole cities that did not exist two decades ago. While much of America's infrastructure is deteriorating because its people prefer tax cuts, China is investing heavily in the future.

Such achievements are much easier, of course, for an authoritarian Government that stifles dissent, tramples on human rights and has several hundred million dirt-cheap labourers at its disposal.

The Chinese are not “free”, but outside Tibet - and with a few other high-profile exceptions - they wear their oppression lightly. I detected no great clamour for democracy at this stage in the country's development. Security and prosperity come higher on most people's wish list. On that score the regime has delivered spectacularly, with 400 million Chinese lifted from poverty in the past 30 years and consistent double-digit growth rates.

The Chinese can travel abroad, but how many abscond? Many local officials are corrupt and reviled, but if China's communist leaders stood in free elections they would probably romp home. A recent survey for the Pew Research Centre showed that an astonishing 86 per cent of Chinese are satisfied with their country's direction, putting China 25 points ahead of second-placed Australia in the global contentment rankings.

The US came 20th out of the 24 countries surveyed, with only 23percent satisfied. Nigerians, Pakistanis, Mexicans and Tanzanians were all happier.

None of this is immediately apparent from the Western media's Olympic coverage. It has, rightly, reported on the crushing of protests and internet censorship. It has decried the pollution (conveniently forgetting that we have shipped most of our dirty industries to China so that we can buy the end products more cheaply). It had a field day with the digitally enhanced fireworks, the pretty young “singer” who mimed her words, and the other little tricks the Chinese used to stage the most sensational opening ceremony ever seen. None of this criticism is wrong, but it is hardly a rounded picture.

Thank you Mr. Fletcher for your fair and un-sensational reporting. Having endured great hardship, the Chinese have the perspective that, while they would like the type of freedom
those in the west take for granted, what they now have, too, is freedom - in light of their sorrowful history.

YC Lee, Toronto, Canada

One of the most balanced reporting I've seen. Thumps Up!

Johnathan, Sydney, Australia

The last paragraph reflects the very frustration many Chinese feel towards western media. We are asking that you report what you see - but both the GOOD as well as the bad. So far, western media has failed to focus on the former and exaggerated the latter.

May, Sydney, Australia

The people in Hurricane Katrina were surrounded by WATER, they were TRAPPED, that's why they had to wait fo the government to come rescue them! Couldn't rebuild on WATER!Please don't put those victims down to try to build up the Chinese. Having said that, China does seem to be doing well these days.

Elle, Phoenix, United States

This is one of the most balanced and true picture of china i have read in western for a long time.
When i go back to china, i am affected by its engergy, optimism in the air and in every day people, and that is what missing in west and most western reporter fail to report. Its soooo promising

cindy, Melbourne , Australian

cindy, Melbourne , Australia

I think none of our country has the experience to manage 1.3 billion people, so I don't really think we have the position to tell China how to behave. Sure China sucks at human rights but they are doing better, give them some time. Talking about human right, I don't think USA did a better job.

Hans,Weber, Berlin, Germany

boom is always followed by bust...
chinas boom will end soon...
watch this space....

ben sutherland, kirkcaldy, scotland

This is a voice that understands today's China and Chinese people.

Maureen Yu, Hong Kong, China

i think china has merits and demerits,but we are doing our best to become a stronger country,welcome to china and you feel china are not like what some tortuous people said

thoma, beijing, china

There is one man who is compatable with the changes in China - Usain Botl. Astonishing, using the word from NYT fro Bolt.

R.C., Boston,

I agree China is starting to come of age, but, what about putting the two women ages 76 and 79 into a forced labor camp for one year for daring to complain and demonstrate about how their government has treated them? How do you justifiy this action?

Gene, Gebüg, Germany

Yes, if the weight of gold medals is an indicator of national worth, the Beijing Games are an apt tribute to their hosts. Too bad that I can't erase the image of goose-stepping soldiers, arrest of dissenters, assembly line gymnasts, and totalitarian stage management. Another "Triumph of the Will"?

Frank Martin, Cary, USA

With the Colonialism, Slavery, Annihilation of Jews in WW2, Iraq, Gitmo, supporting the Saudi regime, letting the South African run the Apartheid for so long, Chinese people would rather stick with their govt, then support a the western govts, that pick up Human Rights, issue when it suits them.

Jemin , New York , US

USA China compared
Generally we see China using its resources fostering peace- £30 billion plus olympic games.Investment in Africa and Sth.America.
We see USA spending billions on military installations surrounding Russia for example and billions on military occupation of Iraq and Afganistan.

Robert Thomson, London, UK

This article is excellent but it still presupposes that there should be a willingness to allign every region of the world with democratisation and capitalism. Such values may work, but they are not the only values that do. The Chinese shall succeed on their own values - as will the West.

Sahib Singh, Eton, UK

i embrace their elevation, but with that comes responsibilty. i have a lot dealings with the chinese and i believe they are more like the west than most realize. their country has a lot of problems, but i believe they will step up to the plate.

deb, san juan capistrano, us

What is so great about taking chilkdren from their parents and subjecting them to 6-9 hours a day training (at the expense of thier childhood) only to discard the ones who don't make the grade? At these 'camps' some children only get to see their parents once a month. Isn't child labour illegal now?

Viv, London, England

and far behind in labor laws, human rights and freedom.\

The demise of America has been predicted on multiple occasions. It aint happening. People are voting with their feet.

Fernandez, Tacoma, Washington, USA

Kate, I was in evacuation zoon when the fire reached my home in San Diego. To be honest with you, the government didn't do anything except evacuating people from their homes.

Ming, San Diego, USA

The United States won more medals than they did in Athens. The Chinese rise has come at the expense of the Russians and their dwindling medal count, not the Americans. We still dominated in sports we focus on.

Jay, Los Angeles, US

I have long felt there is much the west can, and must, learn from the east. First among these things is the art of sharing the many good things that life offers

Glenn Schaefer, holbrook, us

I think china did a great job, No matter how the rest of the world deny it. I've been there for many times and every time a different sight. West and east had been developed seperately for thousands of years, and have different value, why we have to add our value on them, just cuz' they're not same.

lise, Nilsen, sweden

Martin,Martin,Martin.....USofA companies as well as other 'western' countries baled out 'China"...China offered more workers for less pay...YUM...said the CEO and Board of Directors...Your choice..would you rather live in China or a Western Civilization,including Canada,country..??

MrTim, san marcos, U S of A

This is a balanced report that touched upon many positive aspects concerning daily life of ordinary Chinese, which is usually missing from article written by western journalists.

Hao, Los Angeles, USA

It has been ages since I last read such balanced and impartial view on China by a western reporter.

Jason, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

U.S. infra-structure is collapsing because we prefer tax cuts?Hardly.Corruption,greed,self interest maybe,but not because we want tax cuts.The gov gets plenty of money,they need to spend wisely,not get more.Gov is inherently inefficient,incompetent,to our detriment.We're receding, not dying...yet.

Ian, Austin TX, USA

Absolute rubbish. This article ignores Beijing's lagging economy, "re-education" camps for blacks and homosexuals, repression of free speech, etc. China may conjure a brighter image in the fickel media, but the same destitution and human rights violations are there, sponsered by US corporations.

Dr B, Moscow, United States

Here's to China!! Tibetans oppressed. Freedom of speech squashed. Religion suppressed. Political prisoners by the boatloads. Sure glad they are feelin' fine. No human rights but great Olympics! China's pride is in inverse proportion to the justification for it.

James E. Geoffrey II, Falls Church, Virginia, USA

Chinese dream?When the americans start to emigrate to China,then it will replace the US dream.
People on the world are voting with their feet on this question,and everybody know for whom they vote.
Untill that changes,the case is closed.

Angel, Sofia, BG

Your article has truth complimented with a healthy dose of conjecture.

Pat, Chicago, USA

This is a balanced report, both touching the reality and convering a whole picture of China. It has the insights, objectivity, and intellectual honesty that vast majority of the Western reports have missed with regards to China.

Victor, Hamilton, Canada

A most balanced article. China has never had a democratic system. For the last 100 years, she has been struggling to lift the weight of centuries of dynastic rule off her. Compared to the Mao era, the Chinese would feel they've a lot of freedom now, and a sense of optimism for the future.

LaoChuang, Perth, Australia

Forget American century: A decade and that's being generous. It's Asian century now. China won't have any truck with Muslim sensibilities. Chinese proverb: "Kill one, terrify 10,000". And with China, there is the prospect of an improvement in the field of human/civil rights. In the democratic west the situation will only deteriorate.

Andrew Milner, Yokohama, Japan

Yes, the U.S. is still leading the whole world in terms of technology, economy, military and culture.

But China is catching up quickly, with her unlimited human resources. The Country is ready to be launched into next phase of development, which will bring China on a par with the States.

Ken, Arlington, USA

I have been travelling in & out of China since 1992 and the changes have been remarkable. They have a very long term strategy. Thats the key. Build the infrastructure first ie the spine/ skeleton and then power the cities up (unlike India). And its not just at the A or B but at C and D cities

CG, Singapore,

The American Dream is still very much alive . Talk to the many immigrants in the US who is living their dreams,you'll get plenty of inspiring stories!Yes,China has replaced the Soviet Union as competitors in athletics,but the US is still up there with them! It can be Brazil replacing China next time

Arlene, LA,

At last a journalist who looks beyond the moral high ground! Congratulations! After 150 years of continuous turmoil, China is entering it's age of modernity. Perhaps the West can best is offering help on how to develope the institutions of modern civil government - not just focussing on human rights

K.K. Lim, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

They are doing OK now.

Let's see how things work out when half the popuulation is over 60, and the other half is 2/3 men and 1/3 women.

That time will come.

Jonathan, NYC, USA

Let alone the West's patronising attitude the polluted environment plus the rich/poor polarised society woild be the real nut to be cracked. The terrorists in the Xinqang plus Tibet uprising issues could have been easily resolved had there been no meddling about from outside China. A balance report.

TWK, Peterborough, UK

As I am married to a Chinese national I have been
to China on more than several occasions. The Chinese people are absolutely wonderful. The Chinese govenment sucks but the people are great.

Bruce Northwood, Washington, D.C., USA

Arlene, LA,

One of the best articles on China I have read since the start of the Olympics. The Western media has all too often presented one side of the picture, often tinged with moral superiority. This article is a breath of fresh air.

MW, London,

China has more troubled spots than Africa. They have a islamic insurgency, Tibetan monk situation. In less than 30yrs they will have no fresh water. Yeah they have alot of people but that means thay have alot of bellies to feed. Did I mention their desert is swallowing whole villages every year.

Tyler, Springfield, USA

I've lived and worked in China for the last two and a half years. I'm on holiday in Australia at the moment and I can't wait to go back to China. China is alive!

Les H, Zhangzhou, China

There're many things going on in China that we should NOT emulate. The whole totalitarian collectivism, for example. What made America great was an unwavering belief in the individual and in personal liberties -- quite the opposite of the Chinese. If you want to live like ants, grow some feelers.

Matt, Berlin, Germany

Great journalism and reporting! No one denies the problems in China, but that does not give the West the moral highground to criticize with arragonce. To paraphrase The Book and Chinese idiom, thou shall look at oneself in the mirror before laughing at others....

J, Houston, USA

Perhaps you missed the California Wildfires of last Autumn? The largest displacement of US Citizens in history and a testament to the American spirit.

Kate, Los Angeles,

Does anybody think that rise will last ? C' mon ...

Alex Coman, Medgidia, Romania

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The Chinese Dream has replaced America's

China's economy may be lagging behind the US, but it is miles ahead in optimism, dynamism, and patriotism

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