Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
However, criticism of Mao was one thing - criticism of the Party was viewed quite differ-
ently. When demonstrators assembled in
Tian'anmen Square
in 1989, protesting at corrup-
tion and demanding more freedom, the regime dealt with them brutally, sending tanks and
soldiers to fire on them.
Deng's “open door” policies of economic liberalization and welcoming foreign influences
brought about new social (though not political) freedoms, massive Westernization, and the
creation of a consumer culture. Western fast food, clothes and music and Japanese motor-
bikes became - and remain - all the rage.
Deng stepped down in the early 1990s and was succeeded by
Hu Jintao
(1942-) and
Wen
Jiabao
(1942-), pragmatic technocrats under whose stewardship the Chinese economy grew
at a sustained rate of around ten percent a year. Urban Chinese became much better off: in
the 1970s, the “three big buys” - consumer goods that families could realistically aspire to -
were a bicycle, a watch and a radio; in the 1980s, they were a washing machine, a TV and a
refrigerator. Now, like their counterparts in South Korea and Japan, the middle classes own
cars and computers.
Beijing today
The glitz and pomp of the
2008 Olympic games
,
in which China topped the medals table,
served to mark the city's arrival on the world stage. Before the games, Beijing benefited from
massive investment in infrastructure, including new subway lines and freeways - as recently
as 2007, Beijing only had three subway lines, but by 2013 it had broken the world record for
daily ridership. And the city's restless
reinvention
continues. A ramshackle charm has been
lost in its wholescale redevelopment, but on the whole Beijing has improved. It will never
perhaps be memorable for attractiveness, but it's undeniably dynamic, inventive and exciting.
The
embrace of capitalism
has, however, brought with it new problems. Short-term gain
has become the overriding factor in planning, with the result that the future is mortgaged for
present wealth, and Beijing's cultural heritage has vanished as
hutongs
are pulled down to
clear space for badly made skyscrapers.
Xi Jinping
(1953-) became the People's Republic's seventh president in 2013, with
Li
Keqiang
(1955-) as his premier. One senses that by the end of their tenure, Beijing as a city,
and China as a whole, will have had to jump a fair few hurdles.
The economy
First of all, there's the question of the
economy
. Even before Xi's accession, measures were
being taken to put the brakes on to avoid a burst financial bubble, and after two decades of
double-digit growth, it's now down to a far more manageable 7-8 percent, with many sus-
pecting that even these figures are most likely exaggerated.
