The Coming War on China Page #13

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change political parties

but you can't change the policies.

In China you cannot change the party

but you can change policies.

In 65 or 66 years, China has

been run by one single party

yet the political changes

that have taken place

in China these past 66

years have been wider

and broader and greater than probably

any other major country in modern memory.

- So in that time, China

ceased to be communist.

Is that what you're saying?

- Well, China is a market economy.

It's a vibrant market economy

but it is not a capitalist country.

Here's why.

There's no way a group of billionaires

could control the party bureau

as billionaires control

American policy making.

So in China, you have a

vibrant market economy

but capital does not rise

above political authority.

Capital does not have enshrined rights.

In America, capital,

the interest of capital and capital itself

has risen above the American nation.

The political authority cannot

check the power of capital.

That's why America is a capitalist country

but China's not.

- [John Narrating] This

is the ironic title

of a best-selling book by Zhang Lijia,

a journalist and critic

who lives in Beijing.

- Many Americans imagine

that the Chinese people

live a miserable, repressed

life with no freedom whatsoever.

That's not quite true.

If you speak to many

ordinary Chinese people,

they will tell you they feel

their lives are quite free.

Some 500 million people

have been lifted off poverty

and some would say probably

600 million people.

That's a great achievement.

For many Americans, the Yellow

Peril has never left them.

I think there's a fear about China.

There's a fear of China's rapid rise,

but it also has a lot to do with China's

label as a communist state.

- China's objectives are modest

compared with their weight.

They're not trying to run the world.

They're not even trying

to run the Asian-Pacific.

I think they want to keep America

from dominating the Asian-Pacific.

So they have what they believe

is their rightful place

in the Asian-Pacific,

because of all civilizations

and all the history on their side,

so their objectives are really modest

compared with their capacity.

- The new wealth in China,

they often say this is the product of

self-made entrepreneurial skill but

is it not also the product of

the exploitation of people at the bottom,

what are known in China as migrants.

But they're not really

migrants, they're Chinese.

- (laughs) If you really go to

talk to these migrant workers,

you will find quite surprisingly,

over the past five to seven years,

they have experienced a

greater income increase

than any other social groups.

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