Prosperity tangible along Chang'an Ave

• Source: The Global Times
• [04:58 June 04 2009]
• Comments

As time moved on, many of the protestors at Tiananmen Square became university professors, industrial leaders, executive editors and government officials. Among those who went abroad after the incident, some have returned to China and reincorporated themselves into today’s Chinese society, while some are still sticking to their cause overseas. And, recently, relevant activities have been held in the US and Europe by former participants, according to overseas news services.

A Global Times reporter based in the US visited the headquarters for the China Democracy Party in Flushing, New York, a major residential area for the Chinese. The headquarters is located in a small, plain building with a cluster of doorplates hanging at the front gate.

Some local Chinese told the Global Times that there are quite a few similar organizations sticking to their old cause, but they have difficulties looking for financial support due to a lack of fame and influence. Many of them do not even have an office. With the economic development of China, these organizations attract much fewer supporters than before.

While putting aside debate on the June 4 incident for two decades, most people in China have devoted most of their energy and enthusiasm to economic reform, leading to continuous rapid GDP growth and causing foreign media to call China a “world power.”

“Chinese leaders insisted on not debating the June 4 incident or whether China was following a socialist or capitalist model of development,” said He Liangliang, senior political commentator of the Hong Kong-based Phoenix Satellite TV.

“They had no intention of challenging the super-power position of the US, but they focused on maintaining stability of internal politics and domestic society, while keeping good relations with other parts of the world. In this way, China set direction and established a solid foundation for today’s peaceful development.”

Many other mainstream Chinese scholars share that opinion.

“Deng Xiaoping showed his wisdom by saying, ‘Do not debate (on socialism and capitalism)!’” said Liu Jiangyong, a professor of International Relations at the Institute of International Studies at Tsinghua University.

“History proves that we are on the right track,” Liu said. “As a model for development, socialism with Chinese characteristics has satisfied the interests of most Chinese people.”

The success of economic reform is widely witnessed and appreciated by the majority of Chinese.

“When analyzing an historical event like the June 4 incident, we’ll get lost if we become entangled in details,” said Jiang Lingfei, professor at the Institute for Strategic Studies at the PLA National Defense University. “By putting what happened in a grand background, we’ll get a clearer picture.”

After decades of development, socialism was at a low ebb in the late 1980s during its competition with capitalism. Economic laws were violated by the planned economy. Bureaucracy prevailed because of a high degree of centralization. The former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries entered a period of stagnation. Feeling a lot of pressure from within and outside of the State, socialist countries came to a crossroads of deep reform, according to Jiang.

“It would have been easy to overturn the boat if the reform was not handled well,” he said.