TWO significant anniversaries took place in China on June 4, 2009 – one to considerable fanfare in Shanghai, the second greeted by complete official silence.
Richard Branson flew in to celebrate 10 years of Virgin flights from London to Shanghai. The city’s state- run daily English language newspaper happily carried pictures of the globe-trotting entrepreneur being welcomed enthusiastically by local dignitaries.
In the rest of the world, the date was making the headlines as the 20th anniversary of the 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.
There was not a line about this in the Shanghai Daily News, and the only clue on my hotel room TV was the periodic abrupt black-outs of the CNN and BBC World 24 hour news services as they covered the occasion.
It served as a stark reminder that, however western-facing and accommodating China has become, things are a little different in the People’s Republic.
China has changed a lot since 1989, reaching out to do business with the West. In Shanghai, a Ridley Scott fantasy city of futuristic skyscrapers and brash neon lights, financial wheeler- dealers and hedonistic nightlife, it is easy to forget that you are in a one-party Communist state.
But this is a city and a country where people get to vote only at the most local level. The Party rules, and what it says goes.
China’s economy has soared away in the last two decades, and the country will grow into the dominant world economic super- power of the 21st century.
The current global financial crisis has caused little more than a stumble in China’s progress, with growth forecasts being cut back to around 7%, a number that struggling western economies like our own can only watch with envy.
Part of the secret of their economic success is the single-minded determination and sheer speed with which they are able to pursue and carry through their objectives.
Shanghai wanted to create a superb riverfront site for Expo 2010. No problem. It relocated a power plant, a steel works, and a ship yard out of the city, and moved the homes of thousands of workers.
This was carried out by edict, with no public inquiries, no law suits against evictions.
Compare and contrast with our own Edge Lane plans, for example.
The result will be a breathtaking site for Expo 2010, a legacy of superb buildings and parks for the city’s 20m people to enjoy, and a major benefit to the city’s environment thanks to the reduction in pollution.
