Fifty years after Mao Zedong stood atop the crimson Gate of Heavenly Peace and proclaimed the People's Republic, China remains a nation caught between extremes: of poverty and wealth, of change and continuity, of order and chaos.
Fifty years is but a blink in China's long history. But the decades of communist rule since Oct. 1, 1949, have transformed this nation perhaps more than any half century before.
For many of its 1.25 billion people, today's anniversary is truly cause for celebration. Mao's triumph united China, ending a century of civil war and predatory treatment by foreign powers. Market-oriented reforms begun 20 years ago have raised standards of living for many Chinese.
PHOTO: REUTERS
In Beijing, Shanghai and other cities, forests of glassy skyscrapers, modern expressways, elegant shopping malls and upscale apartment buildings attest to the new wealth. City streets teem with cars that have replaced bicycles, sewing machines and watches as new ``things that go round'' status symbols.
In the countryside, heartland of Mao's revolution, factories dot the landscape. Surrounding them are sturdy two-story brick and tile village homes built by farmers freed from state communes to sow and market their own crops.
Yet for all the urbanites who have prospered, many have not. Millions of workers accustomed to cradle-to-grave jobs, housing, education, health care and pensions must fend for themselves now as state-run factories are weaned from government support.
Farmers in remote, barren regions like western Qinghai province are barely kept from starvation by government handouts. In many villages, the loss of the communes has meant the disappearance of the ``barefoot doctor," roving medics who provided free rudimentary care. Schools starved of government support charge fees too steep for many villagers; girls often go unschooled.
As social controls have eased, rural migrants have flooded into the cities looking for work. Their manpower shouldered the construction boom that has transformed Beijing. Older rural women stay behind to raise children and tend farms. Young women leave to labor in factories or work as housemaids.
City dwellers blame the migrant ``floating population'' for rising crime rates and overcrowding.
Drug abuse, prostitution, kidnapping, bandits, superstitions and cults -- the troubles of the pre-1949 society that Mao ended through ruthless suppression, are flourishing anew. Faced with a huge pool of urban and rural unemployed and a slowing economy, authorities struggle to keep chaos in check.
``Without the Communist Party, there would be no new China,'' China's rulers say. Inheritors of Mao's revolution, today's leaders base their power on their ability to keep control, to deliver prosperity.
With communism a vague ideal of past generations, patriotism and nationalism are now the staples of the party's ideology. Regaining Taiwan, split in civil war from the mainland in 1949, is a sacred mission.
No challengers to the party are allowed. Chinese are the freest they have ever been to choose their own lifestyles and line of work, but public political dissent is harshly suppressed.
Most Chinese are politically wary. Elders, veterans of virulent political campaigns past, know to lie low.
Young people are more interested in jobs, clothing and enjoying life. China's next half century will be theirs. It seems appropriate that it begins on the cusp of a new millennium.
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