Tiananmen Square
By Christy George | May 21, 2010 | China
Beijing's Qianmen Gate
I did a lot of reading before I left for China.
* Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China - Philip Pan
* China Road: A Journey Into the Future of a Rising Power - Rob Gifford
* China: Fragile Superpower - Susan L. Shirk
* Oracle Bones - Peter Hessler
* Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China - John Pomfret
These helped me remember something I was tempted to forget once I got here: despite the appearance of U.S.-style capitalism, China is still run by the Communist Party.
When you are surrounded by the familiar commerce of America: KFCs, 7-11s and even Tiffany, it's hard not to associate rampant consumerism with civil liberties. They're a package deal at home.
The books I read covered different chunks of the past 30 years or so, as China began to open up to outsiders and transform its economic system to unbridled capitalism with "socialist tendencies."
Over and over, there were stories of dissidents being jailed, people practicing self-censorship, and above all, the continuing fallout since the so-called "June 4th Incident," aka the 1990 Tiananmen Square Massacre.
These days, you can't get into the Square without sending your bags through the same kind of X-ray machine used in airports and you should be prepared to be thoroughly wanded.
Reportedly, every year around this time, the authorities tighten up their control of the Square, rousting anyone who sits down.
Today, in the underground passageway that links Tiananmen Square to the Forbidden City just across the street, I saw police hassling a young woman who looked like she might be a member of one of China's many ethnic minority groups. She was crying, and resisting their efforts to move her along. No one tried to intervene. No one even paused long enough for a good look.
And yet, since Chairman Mao "liberated" China, the country - including its poorest people - has improved by any metric. Just one example: there has been a dramatic increase in the life expectancy of infants and pregnant women.
Two weeks is a short time to take in the vastness of China, but one takeaway is now clear to me: capitalism does not equal freedom.
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