TIANANMEN SQUARE TODAY– CHINA
Last week in Tiananmen Square, I was moved to tears. It was not, I am afraid, the
thought of the thousand or so protestors massacred there 19 years ago that had me
wipe away the tiny droplet of salt water unexpectedly trickling down my nose. It was the
sight of thousands of people standing in silence to watch the lowering of their national
flag.
I had expected tourists and tourist tat. Tourists there were, in abundance – groups of
giggling teenagers, young couples, families on a day out and coach parties in red
baseball caps, some waving red flags. But if China’s vast manufacturing industry
extends to Tiananmen Square snowstorms or T-shirts, there was no sign of it here. You
even get a post card. You couldn’t get even a bottle of water.
Instead in this vast space, where Mao held rallies and where people come to do t’ai chi
and fly kites, tourists, nearly all Chinese, took photos of each other, and of me, and
lined up to watch skinny young soldiers with wasp waists march around a flag pole and
take a flag away. Many were smiling. If they weren’t on holiday, they were out for an
evening stroll. And watching them, and watching them watch me, I saw something I’d
rarely seen in my life – a relaxed expression of national pride.
The pride is evident from the moment you arrive at Beijing airport’s new international
terminal. Like Tiananmen Square, like the Forbidden City, like the Great Wall, and like
China itself, it is gargantuan, a glittering symbol of the new China, teeming with
elegantly uniformed staff, all eager to please. Even the immigration desk has a sign
saying “You are welcome to comment on my performance” above a buzzer that you
could press for the options, from smiley face to frown.
In Wangfujing road, Beijing’s Oxford Street, among the traditional tea shops and the
pharmacies selling dried sea horses and knobby roots, and the Mcdonald’s and KFC’s
and Morgans, there are numerous shops bearing the proud slogan “Beijing 2008 Official
Licensed Product Center.” And everywhere “one world, one dream”..
In front of the vast Wangfujing book shop boasting entire sections devoted to
“application for job”, “psychology”, “how to succeed”, etc., and offcourse “party history
and buildings”, there are display boards with pictures of Olympic torch including photos
of Konnie Huq and Gordon Brown.
Today you can eat anything in China. You can buy Nike, Rolex and Chanel. You can
watch skylines spring out of paddy fields. You can watch a giant bird’s nest grow before
your eyes. Since 1990 the Chinese government lifted 350 million people out of poverty.
It has overseen the mass metamorphosis of peasants into the world’s biggest middle
class. It has performed the world’s biggest economic miracle.
Offcourse it is wrong to suppress the people of Tibet. It is wrong to imprison people who
speak out. It is wrong to control the press and offcourse it is right to say so