Opinion | A watershed moment in Chinese history
By Philip Yeung, university teacher
PKY480@gmail.com
Throughout history, China's merchant class had sat at the bottom of the totem pole—disrespected and marginalized. Scholars ranked first, followed by farmers, and then artisans. This social hierarchy has stood unchanged for more than two millennia.
This social bias against the business sector is deep seated. China has always glorified the Confucian classicists and moralists who have a stranglehold on the thinking of its leaders and the literati. The centerpiece of the Chinese universe is rule-governed relationships—all subservient to the concept of harmony. China adored its book lovers.
The focus on morality and harmony has turned the Chinese into a tame people. Don't get me wrong, harmony is good for maintaining social order and stability. But self-satisfied morality has the effect of turning the Chinese into an inward-looking people, dampening their curiosity and desire to change the world. The Chinese do not hanker after territorial conquests or meddling in other countries' internal affairs, despite US China-hating propagandists' claim to the contrary.
An overdose of morality has other unintended consequences. As a smug and self-contained entity, China became a closed society. Its doors were only blasted open by foreign gunboats. It was wallowing in its antiquity. It had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the modern age.
Then suddenly came China's epoch-making economic opening up in the early 1980's. China's doors were thrown wide open by Deng Xiaoping's embrace of the new global order. Its impact was revolutionary, transformative and far-reaching. It has redefined China's national priorities. Suddenly, greed was good, money smelled better, and individual ownership of property became protected by law. It had unleashed the Chinese genius in wealth-creation on a scale never dreamed possible in human history. It has also made China a ton of friends and trading partners, cementing the Middle Kingdom's pivotal status in the global economy. China has finally found its footing, lifting 800 million people out of dire poverty. It has elevated China into an alpha player in the global economy.
Creativity followed commerce. Chinese products, affordable and dependable, found favor with the world. Science and technology came thick and fast on the heels of prosperity. Without China's commercial super-success, it would not have the means to fund breakthrough experiments. The business class, maligned for more than two millennia, now sits at the top of the new totem pole as wealth creators, technological innovators and job providers. Domestically, Huawei tops the charts as China's most revered business entity. It is economics that has modernized the Chinese nation. It is economic players that have manufactured the China dream.
But does this mean that Confucian morality is outmoded in today's China? Not in the least. A code of conduct must be imposed on the merchant class. To cite just one example, the didi ride-hailing service takes an unconscionable 30% bite out of each cab fare, leaving the poor drivers with only crumbs for their subsistence. With a surplus of self-employed drivers, this is an extortionate rate that impoverishes tens of thousands of individual service providers. The government must step in to curb the excesses of the platform owners' predatory behavior.
People say that, post-opening up, the Chinese have become money-mad, with money literally the only currency for all relationships. Fortunately, this money-obsession is tempered by the softening power of education.
That the Chinese are among the most gritty and resourceful people on earth is never in doubt. Their all-conquering global trade has given them a taste of the good life. China is no longer the one-dimensional moralistic society it once was. Technological innovation now drives its higher education. China wants its entrepreneurs to enjoy the fruits of their efforts, but not at the expense of the vulnerable and the economic underclass. That's why, at both the national and international level, Chinese wisdom is calling for common prosperity—a slogan that is as timely as it is necessary. China will never again bad-mouth its business people, but Confucius is still peeking over their shoulders.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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