Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They
AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e
BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German
Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who
By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
My Profile
Holiday Gift Guide
Gift ideas & reviews for this holiday season
Start Browsing
You are here:
Home
>
News
>
International
>
Article
Home
Business & Finance
News
U.S.
Politics
International
Technology
Entertainment
Sports
Lifestyle
Oddly Enough
Environment
Health
Science
Special Coverage
Video
Pictures
You Witness
The Great Debate
Blogs
Reader Feedback
Do More With Reuters
RSS
Widgets
Mobile
Podcasts
Newsletters
You Witness News
Make Reuters My Homepage
Partner Services
CareerBuilder
Affiliate Network
Professional Products
Support (Customer Zone)
Reuters Media
Financial Products
About Thomson Reuters
WITNESS: China's long march from Mao to modernity
Mon Dec 8, 2008 2:00am EST
Email | Print |
Share
| Reprints | Single Page
[-]
Text
[+]
Jonathan Sharp first reported in China for Reuters from 1972 to 1974, when he witnessed the stirrings of the nation's emergence from the trauma of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution. On bike-crowded streets, in spartan shops and among wary crowds of drab-clothed locals, Sharp saw a poor and isolated people groping for a way forward. Now, on the 30th anniversary of the launch of China's economic reforms, Beijing is a car-crowded mega-city of glass and steel buildings and garish consumerism. A short, chain-smoking Communist veteran, Deng Xiaoping, was instrumental in forging that transformation. And Sharp was there to watch him first re-emerge from Mao's shadow.
By Jonathan Sharp
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Amidst the cacophonous consumerism of today's China, it may be hard to imagine that 35 years ago, the sole imported item available in Beijing's main department store was cigarettes. Made in Albania.
And outside in the street that was Beijing's version of Fifth Avenue or Oxford Street, only occasional motor vehicles disturbed the ceaseless stream of bicycles.
There was no doubt about the spartan quality of life in the early 1970s before the onset of reforms under Deng Xiaoping which would eventually transform China into the world's fourth-largest economy. But the perceived tranquility was deceptive.
For behind the walls of the Zhongnanhai leadership compound, an epic struggle appeared to be playing out that would decide China's destiny.
The worst excesses of the Cultural Revolution that broke out in 1966 and formally ended in 1976 were over. In fact Beijing-based foreign reporters in the early 1970s wrote about the Cultural Revolution as if it finished in 1969, and they were not corrected by their minders in the Foreign Ministry.
But the decidedly un-comradely battle which foreign observers believed was being fought out between hardliners and moderates was still going full tilt.
According to those attempting to read the Chinese tea leaves, this conflict pitted hard-left firebrands led by Jiang Qing, wife of the increasingly enfeebled Mao Zedong, and a more moderate group, presumed to be led by Premier Zhou Enlai.
And Jiang and her cohorts, later demonized as the Gang of Four, appeared to be winning.
READING BETWEEN THE LINES
The mass of China's people, perhaps weary of being whipsawed by violent ideological crosswinds, and wary of saying anything that could get them into trouble, docilely followed this struggle in the Communist Party mouthpiece, the People's Daily, pinned up on street-side notice boards.
For months on end, the People's Daily railed against the evils of two men. One, Lin Biao, was an obvious target: his 1971 plot to oust Mao was thwarted and he died in a plane crash while fleeing.
The attacks on the other chief mischief-maker, Confucius, were more puzzling since the sage, who laid down firm precepts on relationships, including those between rulers and subjects and between parents and children, had been dead for 2,500 years.
But Chinese people were well versed at reading between the delphic lines. And anyway they had far more to think about than a behind-the-scenes power struggle taking place in a corner of Beijing that very few people were privileged to glimpse.
The world of the "broad masses," as they were termed, seemed to outside observers at least to be one of adequate, but uninspiring and often rationed necessities. Continued...
View article on single page
Share:
Del.icio.us
Digg
Mixx
My Web
Facebook
LinkedIn
Next Article:
TOPWRAP 2-Japan Inc forced to tap banks; Asia stocks jump
Also on Reuters
Heath Ledger gets posthumous film award
Video
Video: Bush urges help for automakers
Slideshow
Slideshow: Knut celebrates his second birthday
Related News
China packages past reforms to guide its present
1:48am EST
TIMELINE: China milestones since 1978
1:54am EST
Editor's Choice
Slideshow
A selection of our best photos from the past 24 hours. Slideshow
Most Popular on Reuters
Articles
Video
Recommended
SUVs at altar, Detroit church prays for a bailout
U.S. housing crisis also hitting the wealthy
"Twilight" director won't shoot sequel
Nobel winner sees end to AIDS spread within years
Pakistani militants destroy Western army vehicles
U.S. dollar rally may stall at the start of 2009
Obama says he won't be smoking in White House
Adventurer Bear Grylls injured in Antarctica
Senate returns to auto bailout talks | Video
Iran tests new missile from warship: reports
Most Popular Articles RSS Feed
Video
Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic spreads
Greeks take stock of riot damage
Muslims celebrate haj
Bush urges help for automakers
Hoax call row after Mumbai attacks
Ireland in pork product alert
Church picks new interim leader
More bodies found in Pakistan blast
Iran still a thorn as Bush departs
Fate of Detroit bailout uncertain
Most Popular Videos RSS Feed
Congo
Death all around
Witness
Award winning Reuters photographer Finbarr O'Reilly recounts the horrors of living on the front line of the conflict in eastern Congo. Blog
Slideshow: Images from Congo
Video: The long wait for refugees
Blog: Caught in Chad rebel offensive
Reuters Deals
The global destination for corporate leaders, deal-makers and innovators
Knowledge to Act
Reuters.com:
Help and Contact Us |
Advertise With Us |
Mobile |
Newsletters |
RSS |
Interactive TV |
Labs |
Reuters in Second Life |
Archive |
Site Index |
Video Index
Thomson Reuters Corporate:
Copyright |
Disclaimer |
Privacy |
Professional Products |
Professional Products Support |
About Thomson Reuters |
Careers
International Editions:
Africa |
Arabic |
Argentina |
Brazil |
Canada |
China |
France |
Germany |
India |
Italy |
Japan |
Latin America |
Mexico |
Russia |
Spain |
United Kingdom |
United States
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.