About China
by Darcy A. Kern

A friend of mine recently returned from a fifteen-day trip to China during which she traveled throughout the eastern half of the country. The trip was a vacation, but because she traveled with a friend who was originally from China, she was able to see places that few American tourists have the opportunity to see. She also had an opportunity to interact with and listen to a diverse group of Chinese men and women. Consequently, it was not just a fun vacation but a highly informative trip. After the visit she had a greater appreciation for the Chinese people, their culture and their history than she had had previously. She also gained a better insight into the problems China must confront in the future.

Modern Chinese attitudes, my friend noted, are extremely complex. The people she met were overwhelmingly kind and giving. Many of them voiced genuine admiration and fondness for Americans as well. One man told her of an American family with nine children whom he met while they traveled in China. Five of the children had been adopted from China and had severe disabilities. It was hard for him to imagine caring for so many children, but he was greatly impacted by the love and compassion that motivated the parents to have such a large and diverse family.

In Chongqing my friend visited two small museums. The first was dedicated to General Joseph W. Stilwell, the commander of the China-Burma-India Theater during World War II. The second commemorated the 1st American Volunteer Group, a group of pilots more commonly known as the "Flying Tigers." Both Stilwell and the Flying Tigers helped the Chinese defeat the Japanese in Burma and China during the war. The men and women who founded and operate these two museums, particularly the latter, did so in appreciation of the Americans who fought and died alongside the Chinese to ensure their freedom from a vicious enemy. They also sought to emphasize the close ties of friendship that once existed between the United States and China.

Yet in spite of such gratitude for the assistance they received during World War II, many Chinese seem to have an acute sense of inferiority about their history. They compensate for this with an inflated sense of their current cultural and technological status. Because China has been controlled for much of its history by foreigners (the Mongols, the Manchurians, the British, the French, the Japanese and Americans), my friend sensed that the Chinese have a self-obligation to prove their country is now the equal of, if not better than, the modern industrial world powers. Consequently, they claim that everything in China is the biggest, the best or the fastest in the world and that they invented most of the technological advances of the modern world. While it is certainly true that the Chinese introduced Europeans to gunpowder, paper and the compass and that they currently have a rapidly growing economy, many of the historic and modern claims my friend heard were wildly inaccurate. One wonders if this is due in part to the absence of a proper historical context in the teaching of history, to the government's censorship of current information, and to a resurgence of nationalism as the Chinese indulge a universal human desire to be proud of one's heritage.

But for all of China's recent economic growth, the country will face some very serious problems in the future. The most notable problem is one of demography. Because China adheres to a strict one-child policy, with the exception of ethnic minorities and some rural families who are allowed two children, there were few babies or children to be seen. Many of the young adults in their late 20s with whom my friend spoke said it is common for young people not to want any children at all. They freely admitted that having been raised as the "little emperors" in their own families as the first generation born after implementation of the one-child policy (and being severely spoiled as a result), neither they nor their friends have a desire for even the one child permitted by the government. By mid-century this may have an enormous impact on China's economic, cultural and foreign policy as the population ages significantly.

Another problem is a general discontent with the Communist Party. Without mentioning the subject or soliciting information, my friend was bombarded with complaints from taxi drivers, tour guides and others about the wealth of Communist Party officials. Communism, they complained, was supposed to ensure that everyone lived equally and that there was no disparity in wealth. Yet in China such equality of means is non-existent and they were disillusioned with both the ideology and the pretense of equality maintained by the government. Many of the young adults also noted that among their generation there is a declining interest in joining the Party.

All of this is not to say that there will be immediate economic and political troubles in the country. But it did appear that a resurgent nationalism coupled with apathy toward posterity and a frustration with the political status quo could create a volatile combination of problems in the next fifty years. The potential consequences, including regional aggression, economic decline or a change of government, could have a tremendous impact upon China, its neighbors and the world. This is particularly true for Japan and Russia, whose birthrates are also declining sharply, and for India, whose population is booming.

My friend, who has since learned much about China's history and culture, laments the fact that so few Americans are well-informed about China and fewer still have visited the country. It is worth a trip-the people are nice, the food is good, and the cultural heritage is very rich. If you go, be sure to see the Stilwell and Flying Tigers museums in Chongqing.

Darcy A. Kern is a Policy Analyst for the Free Congress Foundation.