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Don't talk politics with the Chinese!By Ken Root Trying to figure out how Chinese communism and capitalism work together will cause a mental configuration like a dog chasing its tail. It is impossible for me to understand how the two can coexist. Still, they do, and China has never been more prosperous. Whether it remains politically stable, with this contradictory arrangement, remains to be determined. I am now in China, traveling with an Iowa soybean delegation, and in shock at how much has changed since my visit here in 1981. China has made a huge move toward capitalism and first world status. Traveling here as a young reporter with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture John Block, I thought I was on the set of a 1930s movie. The concrete was brown and the city of Beijing was dark and dingy. When we landed at Guangzhou last week, we walked into a huge, modern airport that could put Dulles or Newark to shame. Beijing's new airport is even larger--to handle Olympic visitors this summer. The road into the city was wide and new, with buildings of style and substance for companies that have risen to prominence in just the last decade. What started the change? In a park in Shenzhen, our second stop just north of Hong Kong, a billboard size painting of Premiere Deng Zhou Ping stands without any caption. It is a tribute to the man who decided to let foreign capital come into China. In the post Mao Se Tong era, beginning in 1979, he was said to have drawn a circle on the map in this region of the South China Sea. It included a fishing village that is now a major city with 13 million people. The major investors were Chinese from all over the world. But Deng also relaxed Mao Se Tong's rules on the culture and social relationships within the country. When I was first here, everyone dressed alike and moved quietly along. Today, you can't tell a Chinese teenager from one in the United States. They wear western clothes, have the same demeanor and show their individuality in much the same way. The government has motivated the workers to work as opposed to their former Soviet counterparts. They see their jobs as the means to a better future for themselves and their children. Chinese central committee members obviously are seeing results of their policy as the factories are so profitable that they are luring in farm laborers--and households are buying all types of conveniences. Does this sound post W.W.II familiar to you? The most remarkable change is in the Chinese diet. They are craving more meat--poultry, fish, pork and even beef. The government is quite concerned about rising food prices, as the consumers are bidding up the value of high protein food. This is causing China to import very large quantities of soybeans this year. Our delegation of Iowa soybean growers is here at a very opportune time. China buys on price and need. They want to establish a relationship and be given reassurance that we will produce enough to supply their needs at a good value. (The March 31 planting intentions report should be great news for China.) The government regulatory system reviews genetically modified products (GMO) before allowing importation, but the feel of discussions is that they will approve future GMO "events" if they have a continuing growth in demand and the price is right. Here's a communist government issue: China's government wants people to buy cars so they are subsidizing those who drive vehicles by reducing oil prices by 50 percent. Owning a car is a very new thing and they are doing so in droves. The people think fuel is cheap and heavy traffic in the cities proves it. But China is experiencing "food price inflation" because of the available consumer dollars bidding for a higher quality diet. Government has responded by prohibiting the use of grains to make biofuels. "No meals for our wheels" is their statement. It is all about keeping down public unrest by government action--we subsidize biofuels and they subsidize oil. Our host for two days in Shenzhen was a robust "country boy made good" entrepreneur named Zhu Kunming. He's a major soybean importer and owns fish farms in his home community. On a long Sunday bus trip northeast, we followed the superhighways to the narrow concrete roads of the villages and walked the terrace paths across the rice paddies. His ponds reach to the mountains at least a mile away with fresh water pumped throughout and a diet of 40 percent soybeans being fed to several species, including catfish. Zhu talked of China's growth in business and how independent he is in his dealings, but if you begin to move toward his real freedom to challenge the government, he becomes evasive and quiet. He and his wife, a banker, have one child, an eight-year-old son. Under China's policy, that is all they are allowed. He wants to send his son to Harvard after he finishes university studies in China. Zhu sees education as a key to his son's future, even though he has made it on personal energy, business savvy and by assembling a loyal following. His priorities are not on human rights or reducing pollution. We were told that he is a Communist Party member, and expresses his views within the system, but he is careful not to jeopardize what he has accumulated. The Chinese cannot own land but they are given leases for long periods and farms can be passed down. Government clearly allows business to take farmland as the factories, apartments and roads were eating up productive real estate around all the cities. Displaced farm workers go to the factories and find a better life, whether they want to or not. China's government is the ultimate authority on all disputes and the central committee sets policy that reaches to the most distant peasant. They manage 1.4 billion people with the population expected to continue growing to reach 1.6 billion in 30 years before declining. If the population gets away from them, all else could be lost. I stand perplexed that this country can have a communist chassis with a capitalist engine; a communist driving with the capitalists riding. But the system works and Zhu says, "The communist government doesn't matter!" But he knows when to be bold and when to hold his tongue. Editor's Note: This is Ken Root's 34th year as an agricultural reporter. He grew up on a small farm in central Oklahoma and started his career as a vocational agriculture teacher. He worked in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri as a broadcaster and was the original host of AgriTalk. He has also been the executive director of the National AgriChemical Retailers Association in Washington, D.C. and the National Association of Farm Broadcasters in Kansas City. Ken is now the lead farm broadcaster at WHO and WMT Radio based in Des Moines, Iowa. He has been a columnist for HPJ and Midwest Ag Journal for seven years. 4/7/08 Date: 4/3/08
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