The American Spectator

At Large

All Aboard the Shanghai Express

By G. Tracy Mehan, III on 11.5.07 @ 12:07AM

(Page 2 of 2)

So I arrived in Shanghai carrying all this cultural baggage with romantic notions of Westerners in China going back to Matteo Ricci, the amazing 16th-century Jesuit missionary who wrote the first European memoir on visiting the country. Ricci learned the language and ingratiated himself with the ruling class by giving them clocks and taught them to use "memory palaces" -- mnemonic devices -- to help their sons pass rigorous civil service exams to qualify for top government positions.

The idea was to store information, mentally, in various rooms in the house or palace as an aid in easy retrieval. Educated Europeans excelled at feats of memory, which were a crucial part of the educational process at the time.

Ricci also used this as a way to evangelize the Chinese, with mixed results, by associating various parts of the palace with episodes from the Gospels.

There is a definite European flavor in Shanghai due to its history of partial occupation by imperial powers for many years. The Bund was the center of foreign commercial power. The charming French Concession, now a trendy area of the eastern part of the city, Puxi, was actually governed by the French independent of the Chinese government. The British had a similar arrangement.

But make no mistake. Notwithstanding its fascinating, cosmopolitan history, Shanghai is a mighty Chinese metropolis with a skyline that is a forest of skyscrapers. Its people are not rich, poor by American standards, but they are a dynamic engine of economic growth.

The Shanghai Express is now a German-built Maglev train Maglev train that can achieve speeds approaching 270 miles per hour to and from the airport, whose main terminal looks to me to be 4 or 5 times the size of the one at Washington Dulles.

The wealth evident in the high-rise office buildings, hotels, and public works projects does not appear to extend to the living conditions of many Shanghai residents, at least in relative terms. Apartment buildings look pretty dreary with rust dribbling down the sides of outside air conditioning units, laundry hanging and junk piled up on balconies and in yards. One frequent business traveler to Shanghai describes the apartments of Chinese colleagues as "austere."

In the interior of the country, the Economist ("China, beware," October 13th) claims that 700 million "left-behind peasants" are becoming increasingly frustrated with their situation. Forty percent of China's villages have no access to running water, while the country's defense budget is increasing by double-digits annually.

By the way, even in Shanghai, the rule among hotel guests is still "Drink only bottled water."

SO, WILL THE CHINESE SUCCEED in modernizing their country despite the continued limitations on political and civil liberty? Yes, for the foreseeable future.

The CPC congress in Beijing was pretty much a closed affair. Zero transparency. The new political leadership joined President and General Secretary Hu Jintao in very stiff, formal introductions to the media without any questions or discussion. The "harmonious society" is not likely to change anytime soon.

Singapore, with its large Chinese population, is no libertarian utopia, which did not seem to inhibit its rush to join Hong Kong as one of the Asian Tigers of economic growth. The Chinese prosper economically wherever they live, throughout the Pacific Rim and elsewhere, if allowed a degree of freedom in the marketplace even when denied political liberty.

Hong Kong achieved great things economically due to enlightened low-tax, supply-side policies, imposed by paternalistic British rule, without a complete liberalizing of the political system.

One hopes that economic growth and the rise of a robust Chinese middle class will, eventually, lead to greater emphasis on the rule of law, limited government, political liberty, and, maybe, cleaner air and water. But that is only in the future for this very ancient, unique society.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Education, Business, Religion, Law