It was not unexpected but it still came as a surprise. Several southern states in North America reportedly poised their economies to attract investments from China.<\/p>\n
The son of a moneyed Vancouver magnate spent a bundle to get his son wedded to a model, complete with private fireworks that required a public permit and cost a fortune. Of course, we knew as was anticipated that HK wealth ran to Vancouver and Toronto after the 1997 turnover of the territory to China by England.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In my lifetime, I was acquainted with three civilizational dreams. The first was a royally militant one, asserting an Aryan sense of regal superiority across the planet when the upper lip in the observance of afternoon tea followed the declaration that the \u201csun never sets on the British Empire.\u201d This represented the European dream started by Macedonian Alexander when we led his troops to dip lances on the Indus waters, and the Caesars constructed their viaducts into the piazzas of Rome.<\/p>\n
The second came with G.I. Joe after World War II. In the Pea Eye, it came with Thomasite at the turn of the 20th century, teachers who did not mind being an arm of an imperial design along with the evangelical Midwest Protestant missionaries. \u201cThe light upon the hill\u201d was a characterization from Boston, later called American exceptionalism, and a deep sense of \u201cmanifest destiny\u201d on bringing liberation to the oppressed, relief to the destitute, and freedom to the downtrodden. At first, that is.<\/p>\n
Later, we forgot the oppressed and the double-d. After General Dwight as President Ike on his way out of office warned of the close affinity of corporate management to military might, Uncle Sam\u2019s grunts and state\u2019s policy wonks surreptitiously became the brawn and brain of the country\u2019s oil exploration and drilling concerns. The American Dream became al-Jazeera\u2019s favored punching bag. Individual drive for wealth got stymied as the 15\/85 percent divide became a 1\/99 gross inequality.<\/p>\n
Current President Xi Jinping used the phrase \u201cChina Dream\u201d in his speech after he was elected into office, and joined six others including the country\u2019s Prime Minister in the Standing Committee of the Politburo. His administration vowed to pursue and engage the nation in a China Dream. As a foreigner residing in the country, I am often asked why I chose to be in China after my contract was already completed. I answer through the three points I understand to be constituent of the China Dream.<\/p>\n
One, the dream involves more than the 85 million members of the Communist Party of China, critical as they are since their sense of responsibility includes the proper governance of the land. Rather, it involves the 1.39 billion Chinese in country as well as those dispersed across the planet. Retired colleague and literacy acceleration guru Lucille Chagnon, in the reading and writing anthology she uses for her \u201ceach one, teach two\u201d courses, quotes an old Chinese proverb:<\/p>\n
Tell me, I forget.<\/p>\n
Show me, I remember.<\/p>\n
Involve me, I understand.<\/p>\n
Similarly, the CPC aims to involve everyone in the dreaming.<\/p>\n
Two, the dream diffuses the tension brought by the Huquo individual registration (huji system of household registration) that pits the formerly dominant countryside against the new urban dwellers. It was not historically intended to pit one internal group against another as it was to identify and designate one\u2019s provenance and place of official residence, as well as record immigration and movement of the increasing mobile workforce. A similar practice was followed in Japan, North Vietnam, the Koreas, and Russia (South Korea stopped the practice in 2008, and earlier, the propiska of the USSR). While the intention was not contradictional, the system spawned an informal but actual caste system that favors urban registrants. The dream visualizes a leveled playing field.<\/p>\n
Third, the dream requires that all trade and commerce with people outside the sovereign territory be a win-win arrangement. It does not serve China\u2019s interest anywhere in the world if their investment flourishes at the expense of the host economy. If China advances, so must also be the case of the countries in commercial and trade relationships with China. In the free-market realm, China reads the financial report bottom line, gleans for lessons from the local political process, but does not interfere with it one way or the other.<\/p>\n
After the Tiananmen Square incident of 1989, party stalwart Deng Xiaoping made it clear to reformers that \u201csome folks will get richer before others\u201d as he opened the floodgates of the market to private investments. He reportedly told his audience that they could make as much money as they want but to leave the politics alone to the pros. The China Dream began at his instigation.<\/p>\n
The party had not been idle. Prosecution of high profile charges on corruption were made. Tremors accompany China\u2019s vision of the future but its journey begins at the center. \u201cZhong\u201d is the fifth cardinal point, the center, the same word that identifies the people. In the dream, we are on to a journey to, of, and for the Center, y\u2019all!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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