Part Five: It Felt Like Freedom
Other than my brother’s rough experience getting a visa and the inability to access social media websites like Facebook, we spent twelve great days in China. During that time, things felt comparable to being in the United States. We moved about wherever we wanted.
I paused a number of times just to observe what was happening around me. I saw people moving freely, doing what they wanted, actively engaged in commerce of all kinds – from street vendors to mega malls. I saw adults engaged in Tai Chi out on promenades and observed teenagers performing dance moves in an open plaza. I was amazed by fantastic skyscrapers in financial districts that would make lower Manhattan envious. I even saw a statue of a “bull” representing a “bull market.” Capitalism seems on the march here – markets are open and people are actively participating and benefiting from this “free market.”
Of course, I don’t know exactly how “free” this market economy is. After learning a bit more about what it takes for a foreign business to have access to Chinese markets, it seems to me there is probably a lot more “crony capitalism” rather than true capitalism.
For example, one of my friends works for a major former professional golfer who is trying to elevate his brand in China. When I asked what it took for them to do business like this in China I was told that every foreign company needs to have a Chinese partner company – one that is owned by a Chinese person or persons. I also do not know at what level these companies (both the foreign and Chinese partner) are getting taxed and how much of their profits are going to the Chinese government.
There is a growing level of material wealth in China. With more than one billion people, there are a significant number of millionaires (and even some billionaires). There is also a growing middle class. As Chinese people become more affluent, most of them crave Western goods and products. And when you walk through the shopping malls or past the many luxury car dealerships, you notice that these products are much more expensive in China than they are in the United States. I started to wonder how people there could afford this and then I started realizing there are a significant number of very wealthy people benefitting from both pure capitalism and crony capitalism.
For the twelve days we were there – in cities that included Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guilin, Yangshuo, and Beijing – it felt like freedom. But then again, there was always that thought in the back of my mind that we were in a communist country and we better not do anything wrong. After we left China and returned to the United States, in the wake of the reckless authoritarianism displayed by the DOJ, the IRS, and possibly the NSA, I wondered if my perception of freedom here – both economic and political – might also be misplaced. Is there a possibility that something more sinister may be going on here too?
Let’s hope we’re a better nation than that. Let’s hope this republic of, by, and for the people, never perishes from this earth. There are few places left to go where governments don’t fear allowing people the freedom to exercise their natural rights.
It was an amazing experience to visit China, one of the greatest and longest civilizations in human history. But I am always grateful to live in the freest and greatest nation in human history – for we are not only great because of our economic success, but because we have almost always struck the right harmony between liberty and order.
I hope that as China has followed our example toward a more market-driven economy, that we will also lead them to follow an example for the protection of private property, individual liberty, civil rights, a free press, and yes, even the freedom to get on Facebook, share our opinions, and debate competing ideas with our friends and neighbors – and even have the freedom to blow the whistle for freedom if and when the moment calls for us to do so.