John Rapley

BEIJING, People's Republic of China:

I'm told China was once a communist country. Must have been long ago.

Driving the streets of Beijing, you can find little evidence of a socialist past, let alone a present. Mao's mausoleum on Tiananmen Square, and his immense portrait opposite at the entrance to the old imperial palace, stand out for their stark incongruity with the surrounding landscape: a touch of austere realism that is almost kitsch-like in the sea of glitz, glamour and materialism which China's cities have become.

China's banners still run the length of buildings. But they no longer exhort the workers to fulfil the plan. They urge them to buy new products. And the ubiquitous presence of those stern-looking security men in long khaki coats? They're not a reminder of the Communist Party's rigid control of the society; they are private security guards, hired by shop owners to protect their stores.

This is the new China, and its transformation is truly amazing. In subtle ways, you can find reminders of the Communist Party's control. Try to Google a term like 'Falun Gong' and the screen will suddenly go blank, since the Party prefers not to acknowledge the existence of a sect it so dislikes.

But on the streets, Beijing - like other Chinese cities - is changing by the day. Citizens who leave for a few years of study or work return to find it almost unrecognisable. The traditional quarters of the city are quickly disappearing under the weight of bulldozers. Cranes dot the skyline, as characterless high-rises shoot up to meet the booming demand for office-space and residences for the exploding middle class.

Rampant materialism

It's all too easy to decry China's rampant materialism, as foreigners often do. In the last eight years, the Chinese economy has grown more than Jamaica's has since independence. It will double again in the next few. Incomes are surging. However, grave social divisions are emerging too. The well-dressed professionals who speed along the city's wide boulevards in their luxury imports seem to have little regard for the disfigured old beggars who still tug at shirtsleeves on street corners.

Perhaps their cynicism is understandable. Many Chinese still remember the Cultural Revolution, the frenzied time when the Communist Party decided to transform the nation from top to bottom. They turned young against old and children against parents, sent students to work in the villages and put farmers at the front of classrooms as they sought to create a truly egalitarian society.

But the Cultural Revolution quickly became a vehicle for settling personal scores. Millions of innocent people suffered terribly, and the economy struggled. It is as if the Chinese, having tried to turn their society against materialism and towards cultural transformation, have reacted against the hardships of that time. Today, as the late Deng Xiaoping famously said, to get rich is glorious.

The Chinese were never as religious as some of their neighbours. And one thing the Communists still do is keep a lid on religious expression, fearing as they do any authority-sources which might rival their own. So now that the Communist government has renounced cultural transformation, there are no checks on the materialism of the new age.

And whatever one thinks of the consumer culture that has resulted, it is impossible not to admire the Chinese achievement. From being a relatively insignificant corner of the world economy three decades ago, it is quickly emerging as the colossus that will transform the world.

For better or worse, all our futures will be shaped by China in this century. We all talk about it, but it is time we began to study it carefully.