China: 2009 a year of notable dates

Yet despite the double-digit growth, and some impressive economic developments, China today, concedes Wen Jibao, “trails behind 100 countries in terms of per capita income ... development between urban and rural areas and among regions in China is unbalanced ... tens of millions of Chinese lack adequate food and clothing.” Moreover there are separate estimates that the true rate of urban unemployment reached 12% in 2008 and could reach 14% in 2009 as the economy slows.

Another anniversary just concluded was the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the PRC and the United States. Though President Richard Nixon made the initial “openings” to China, it was the “human rights” President Jimmy Carter who formally, effective 1 January 1979, established Washington's diplomatic recognition of the People's Republic, the world's largest dictatorship.

Less a cause to celebrate for Beijing's Marxist mandarins will be the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement which ended in bloodshed and repression. The June 4th 1989 events are particularly sensitive for the PRC as they shed unfavorable light on the “reformer” Deng Xiaoping's other sanguinary side, and his use of classic repression to crack down on dissidence.

China's ruling Communist Party is a highly efficient political machine that drives the country's 1.3 billion people with scant regard for their welfare, a former top official told Radio Free Asia. Bao Tong wrote from his Beijing home, where he has been under house arrest after serving a seven-year jail sentence following the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. He launched a stinging attack on the “terrifying juggernaut” of China's one-Party state, saying it is capable of driving all before it and now acts entirely in its own interests.

Recently dissidents set up the Charter 08, a document signed by more than 300 intellectuals and rights activists which calls for political reform. “Of all the grass-roots movements that have happened in the past 10 years, the one most worthy of notice is the civil rights movement,” Bao said in a commentary. He stressed, “[This is] a phenomenon which is both unstoppable and impossible to hide.”

China's President Hu Jintao begs to differ-he recently pledged to strengthen the CCP's hand in both the economy and society as a key to national stability. Hu stressed, “by no means will we copy the western political system.” So what does 2009 hold for China?

John J. Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. His email is: jjmcolumn@att.net

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