Last Day In China

We start for home today. Because we flew using frequent flyer miles, our only option for a return itinerary was to fly out this afternoon and spend a night in Tokyo. We're not actually going to venture into the city, which is over an hour and a reported $100 cab ride from the airport, so we'll stay in the town near the airport, which is supposedly charming. I'll have to check to see if it's okay to drink the water there (it's not here, I've had nothing but bottled water for 3 weeks, no ice, and until this hotel, no salad), but I recall that it's okay in Japan. The water in China is famously bad. All the rooms have a kettle to boil water for tea, or in some cases, with a note mentioning that the water is safe to drink after boiling. I've read too much pollution news, though, and I won't touch it.

As I noted a couple of days ago, it's hard to resist the temptation to sum up. I'll offer a few thoughts, though my desire to do so is tempered by a nagging feeling that I have nothing interesting or insightful to offer on China. Here's what I see.

The gap between "New China" and "Old China" is immense, which puts everything out of whack. China has only been a nation in any modern sense since the early 20th century, truly independent since Mao consolidated power in the 1950's, and a part of the world around them since Deng in 1973. That's not even 2 generations removed from the Cultural Revolution, which was such a disaster that people who were part of it won't discuss it. Our guide's parents were sent to the countryside in their late teens, and stayed for almost 10 years. They've never discussed that time with him. I mentioned that it was impressive that Mao released Deng from jail and forgave him after the C.R., which Deng had opposed, and Jack said that Mao had forgiven many people, but that most of them had died in jail, so forgiveness was of limited use.

All I'm getting at here is that nothing is settled. There are modern parts of every city, signs of high tech are everywhere, the stores are full of things to buy. But if you look behind the glitz, you see vast numbers of people, even in Shanghai, living in tiny, dilapidated housing, carrying their groceries home from the open air market wrapped in cloths hanging from a big stick over their shoulders. The cars are new, but the trucks are ancient, slow, and clearly without emission controls of even the most rudimentary sort.

The young people are for the most part modern, but it's hard for them to go 2 sentences without mentioning yet another superstition (4 is a bad number, so you have to make sure not to get a license plate with a 4 on it). The oldest generation is completely out of touch with the modern world, and the middle generation, people my age, are scarred by the events of the revolutionary years. The leading edges are world class, but there's no infrastructure, physical or cultural, to back it up, leaving it vulnerable to collapse.

The country seems to be running on its economic engine, but they'll ultimately need more than cheap labor and the unfettered right to dump whatever they want into the air and water. They'll need a transparent system, without the endemic corruption that now exists. They just executed the head of the food and drug administration for taking bribes from the drug companies. The guy was powerful a year ago, so it's not hard to see why there are now all kinds of problems surfacing with Chinese goods. Corruption is at the heart of the system, but the system is run by the Communist Party, which is the ONLY political entity. Can they self-police? Nothing to date would indicate that that's so.

And are they even communist anyway? Ronnie asked me that last night. How are they communist? There's rich and poor, Giorgio Armani a few blocks from hovels (or maybe less than a block- you can't even see where the locals live in much of the city because they live in courtyards behind the storefronts on the street), fancy restaurants and unsanitary little stands selling steamed buns for 8 cents.

Who knows? I'll post again from Japan this evening (morning for you).