Mao to Now

 

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The new attitude was made brutally plain in May 1999, during the war in the former Yugoslavia, when a NATO jet mistakenly targeted the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, killing three Chinese and injuring dozens of others. Back home in China, the streets erupted as they hadn't since 1989. This time, however, riot cops in Beijing directed traffic and authorities gave out bottled water as thousands of protesters swarmed around the U.S. and British embassies, pelting the buildings with bricks and garbage. Later, U.S. Ambassador James Sasser spoke sadly to me of watching through an embassy window as a Chinese security guard picked up a rock and lobbed it straight toward him. After order was restored, I visited the scene with an American military attach?. He seemed in shock as we walked past the U.S. Embassy's paint-spattered entrance, shattered windows and debris. Understandably so: it had been only 10 years since young Chinese had erected their Goddess of Democracy, modeled after the Statue of Liberty, just down the road at Tiananmen.

China's hong ke"red hackers"—had been equally busy. In Beijing and Shenzhen they proudly showed me their handiwork. One of them had vandalized the White House Web site, putting a Hitler mustache on the then President Bill Clinton. Another bragged of posting photos of the Belgrade bombing victims on the U.S. Interior Department's site. After former Tiananmen student leader Wang Dan dared to suggest publicly that the bombing had been an accident, he received anonymous death threats via e-mail, and someone vandalized his pro-democracy june4.org Web site with a big F––– WANG DAN.

In some ways the hackers reminded me of the young naifs like Wang I'd met in Tiananmen Square: idealistic mavericks challenging the official line. There was one big difference. The rebels of 1989 wanted China's leaders to adopt the West's ideals. The rebels of 1999 increasingly viewed the West as their enemy and thought Beijing was, if anything, too soft. China was stronger, more confident and more active on the international stage than it had been for centuries. But nationalism was running wild, and party leaders could only try not to be thrown by the beast they had created.

V. Sea Turtles
The next time thousands took to the streets of Beijing was the night of July 14, 2001. The crowds, though, were purely festive. Fireworks and lasers lit the sky above as 200,000 revelers flocked into Tiananmen Square. Cars instead of tanks rolled down Changan Avenue, full of exuberant young Chinese waving huge red silk flags. China had just been chosen to host the 2008 Olympics, and the people were truly, viscerally ecstatic: at last their country had been recognized as a full-fledged member of the global community.

China's leaders needed the Games the same way they needed Hong Kong. They had to keep earning the public's confidence—what used to be called the Mandate of Heaven—with ever bigger and better achievements: joining the World Trade Organization, putting their own man in space, building the world's biggest dam, the highest railway, even the tallest Ferris wheel. At some level all Chinese are driven by the dream of reclaiming their ancient imperial glory. At the same time, the country's leaders recognize that the giant's sudden awakening is scary for the rest of the world. With the clock ticking down to 2008—and with China's white-hot economy desperate for energy, raw materials and new markets—the regime quickly launched an international "charm offensive" to befriend longtime U.S. allies and international pariahs alike.

America, frantically dealing with a cascade of international crises, scarcely noticed how Chinese influence was spreading. Chinese diplomats insisted the idea wasn't to elbow the United States aside. "It's not possible for China to be a superpower—a power, maybe, but not a superpower," a relaxed Chinese official told me during a long background chat at a Beijing Starbucks in 2005. "We don't talk about empire." (Yes, China's bureaucrats talk on background now.)

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Member Comments

  • Posted By: clu1984 @ 09/10/2009 11:32:08 PM

    I don't think resentment is the right word to describe her views towards the Chinese communist, because it is the shame and the anger that we (as Chinese grow up outside of China) have to carry each day of our lives. It is a burden, it is the anger and it is a thing that cannot be solved because the actions and decisions are made by the Chinese communist government are difficult to be understood by people who grow up outside of China. They are absolutely wrong, but you have no place to defend your rights or to prove them wrong. It is a desperation and frustration towards the Chinese communist government.

  • Posted By: jordan c. fan @ 08/06/2009 6:30:59 AM

    Mao and His Communism. PART 1.

    By: Jordan C. Fan, Prophet of Environment.

    With the opening of the year 2008 Olympic in Beijing, the ???Cold War??? had ended. China & its Communism political ideology has successfully emerge as the winner of this highly destructive war. Tens of millions of lives have been lost & trillions of dollars of property damages all due to American aggression. Historically, East Asia has always been the habitats for Asian survival and development. Americans ivolvements in these area during the Cold War are obviously aggression. To fully understand the history of the 20th century or beyond, we must understand the political system in China.

    There were little or no ???politic??? before the American Revolution for their independence from England in 1776. Monarchies as ???political??? leaders or alternatives were without political ideologies but the personalities of those monarchs which would dictate their government policies. We should all agree that politics or ideological difference of governments are really myths or deceptions. Its sole purpose is to overthrow or replace an existing government or political party. After such political transformations were completed, politic in those nations should become obsolete. As its replacements, there should only be constant but gradual improvements of the existing ???political??? framework to fit the need of their citizens. Frequent elections at all levels will be extremely wasteful, time consuming & inefficient.

    The United States used its own politic ideology as a deception during the Cold War to diverge attentions from its internal unrest since its Civil War. The process of mandatory & scheduled political changes even through elections are unnecessary because they always create instabilities. Currently, China is totally surrounded enemies from all direction and all over the world. They will attack China immediately if a weakness is found. I as Prophet of Environment can certainly help and defend China to win but all Chinese every where should also help and cooperate with the Chinese government. The first thing they need to do is stop all complains, forget the unpleasant past experience, and embrace Chinese Communism 100%. There should be no rooms left for foreigners to criticize the Chinese government. In short, all Chinese must reject all foreign criticisms of Chinese government or Communism.

  • Posted By: jordan c. fan @ 08/06/2009 6:24:58 AM

    Mao & Communism. PART 2

    Jordan C. Fan, Prophet of Environment.

    Since the Cold War had ended in 2008 with China???s victory, this world should follow the path of a careful & gradual transformation into Communism. In fact U. S. is currently embracing their own version socialism. There should not be any more blood sheds, destruction of property & waste to initiate anymore political changes. Communism indoctrination will be especially useful in integrating regions such as Macao, Hong Kong, & Taiwan back into Mainland. Learning process will go both ways. Mainland will also learn about the life styles of Chinese in those regions.

    In a given planet, there can only be one nation who can truly be democratic & independent at the same time. All other nations can either be undemocratically independent or seemingly democratic but were controlled by another stronger nation which in most cases is the U. S. The leaders of those small nations are nothing but puppets with no choices but to follow American orders. This is the reason why the U. S. is so anxious in converting other nations into ???democracy???

    For Communismt to work perfectly, citizen must be relatively well educated, unselfish & well trained. My own interpretation of ???revisionism??? as being a political system which can be easily refined & improved. More importantly, we need an extremely long foresight to be able to look into the very distant future and not restrict short term gains. China had survived the latter therefore should be posed to become successful. People of a communist nation must be able to take sacrifice & not operate totally on profit. The failure of PRC???s communism at its early stage were simply due to U. S. embargo & boycott in areas such as commerce & technology transfer.

    Chinese still refuse to accept the fact that their leaders are also one of them. Whatever that leader do is not only for their own good but are for other citizens also. This is the exact opposite to U. S. chief executives who functions exclusively for their own personal gain. They work only for the sake of being reelected & remembered in history. The minute their terms are over, they will be long gone & left behind mountains of unresolvable problems. In fact, it is their duty to be gone & to be relieved after their terms are over.

    To put it very simply, Chinese must begin to treat their leaders as their parents. They are harsh, domineering & prone to making mistakes but somewhat responsive, naturally caring & they are permanent. We should remember that any social improvements toward perfection today will be limited by depleting resource & damaging Environment. Communication within the world???s biggest Chinese bureaucracy is difficult. If a better system can be established for leaders to give more attentions to their subordinates. With renew respect & trust from its citizens, China

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