China shedding its image as a developing country

China shedding its image as a developing country

Harry Bhaskara, The Jakarta Post, Beijing

This is the second article in a series based on a visit to China by courtesy of the Foreign Affairs Ministry of China.

For Indonesians used to being in a crowd, the serenity of Beijing Airport is anomalous.

It was as though our group of six were the only passengers to have landed that Wednesday morning in late November.

Perhaps, it was an exception but new arrivals would invariably feel there was room enough for everyone. The 30-minute drive from the airport to our hotel was free from congestion.

The chilly air in early winter was a cool change as Jakarta was basking in 35 centigrade.

The smooth ride on the expressway, the well-built high-rise buildings and the intelligent urban planning match those in developed countries.

Indeed, this first-world feeling lingered as we traveled around the country to Beijing, Xining, in the western Qinghai province and to Xiamen in southeastern Fujian.

When looking at a Beijing city map, the Imperial Palace or the Forbidden City -- now a public museum -- is the core of the city which spreads out from the epicenter in a grid-like pattern and makes it easy for new arrival to work out where they are going.

Each city expansion has been enclosed by a ring road, giving birth to nicknames such as Ring One for the inner-city proper, where the Palace, the Tiananmen square and the National People's Congress building are.

Today Beijing, with an area of 16,800 square kilometers -- about 25 times the size of Jakarta -- and a population of 14.5 million, has expanded up to Ring Six.

Prior to our visit to Xining, about 1,300 kilometers west of Beijing with an elevation of about 2,000 meters above sea level, we were told that it was in Qinghai, which was one of the most backward provinces in China.

But, in fact, we found few signs of backwardness there. On the surface at least, the city seemed to be a smaller version of Beijing. But locals remembered the bad times well.

"All these high-rise buildings only came into existence in 2000," a Xining resident told The Jakarta Post.

Fang Li has more to tell. The deputy director general at the foreign affairs office of the province said that in 1996 Xining had only one street, three multi-storey buildings, and two police stations.

Since China began to reform its economy in 1978, the gap between the rich and the poor has been one of the most urgent problems. Initially, four provinces were designated as economic zones, including Xiamen. Ten years later, a market economy spread throughout the country and China has since grown by leaps and bounds.

Regardless of the reforms, Chinese leaders continue to give credit, some might say lip-service, to socialism.

"Socialism in its initial stages is similar to capitalism," Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei said in his office in Beijing.

"This initial stage," he said, "will go on for 100 years or more. It is a task borne by one generation after another, in order to reach a higher level."

Wu acknowledged that the government had committed mistakes in implementing socialism in the past, obliquely referring to the central economic planning that ruled China since the communists swept into power in 1949.

Describing the global economic developments in the past 100 years with ease and insight, Wu said that barring unfounded changes, China would continue its high-level growth for another 30 years.

As upbeat as his predictions, Wu exuded ease and confidence. This attitude, it turned out, was common in most civil servants encountered in the trip, both in the villages and cities.

Economic growth seemed to be the core of government officials' endeavors but it was also evident that Chinese officials and businessmen were accustomed to looking at things with long-term perspectives.

Wu was sharing his view in terms the next 100 years. Poverty relief officials in Qinghai talked about decades of consistent growth to alleviate poverty in the province. China's GDP, meanwhile, is not waiting around, zipping along at a palpitating 9.1 percent.

The confidence was also evidence among Chinese government officials in implementing regional autonomy, a source of headaches in Indonesia.

Pragmatism rules the game when it comes to regional autonomy in China. Officials at the provincial level of the Foreign Affairs Ministry office, for example, have the right to strike a deal with foreign businessmen.

A district official in Xiamen is authorized to approve all foreign investments below US$30 million.

Bigger projects are handled by the provincial and central government, according to Li Peixiang, vice governor of the People's Government of Xiamen's Haicang district.

In this district, 46 percent of the total investment was made by Taiwan businessmen. It alone is a tangible result of the liberal policy.

If this is not enough, China has other intangible assets like its hard working people and its respect for the arts.

In Xiamen, it is not unusual for shops to stay open until 11 o'clock at night. Street traders of all ages stood guarding their wares braving the cold weather of winter until close to midnight.

On nearby Gulang Yu island, a well-known businessman from the island who loved music, especially the piano, put up a public museum to the instrument. Inside the museum, some 30 odd pianos including ancient ones, still in prime condition, were on public display.

While China is a developing country in transition -- it certainly has the characteristics of a developed country.