The Coming War on China Page #6

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has proven an extraordinary

ability to change.

I make the joke:

in America you can

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.

China is not a class society.

- [John Narrating] But

China is a class society.

These are the homes of migrant workers,

people who build and

service the new China.

Here it's not uncommon for three families

to share one tiny flat.

- You know, you associate a

socialist country with equality

but unfortunately it seems

the reform has started.

China has become one of the

most unequal societies in the world.

The income gap is widening.

Governments, I feel,

have retreated some of

the responsibilities, left

the markets to take over,

but the market does not

always treat women kindly.

Some private companies

that would just refuse

to hire child-bearing aged women.

And sometimes when women became pregnant,

they would sack them.

Because they don't want to

pay their maternity leave.

And in fact, the income

gap has grown much bigger

between men and women.

- Your old boss, Deng Xaoping,

presided over the bloodshed

in Tiananmen Square.

What would you say to the

survivors of Tiananmen Square,

because so many of those did fight

for what they saw as

democratic change in China?

- In 1989, there were

two political forces.

One of those were presented

by the Chinese students.

Their hero was Mikhail Gorbachev,

who happened to be in Beijing.

Their slogan was,

"Soviet Union's Today

is China's Tomorrow."

So the idea was political reform first,

other reform second.

Otherwise, China would be hopeless.

Deng's message was the opposite.

He thought Gorbachev was an idiot.

He thought China must have

economic reform first,

other reform second.

This priority must be set clear.

Unfortunately, at that

particular moment in 1989,

the two political forces

could not reach a compromise.

That's when the tragedy occurred.

- [John Narrating] It

was more than a tragedy.

It was a massacre

of which the memory remains a

raw presence in modern China.

- Why does the Chinese

state still fear the few?

The few who speak out,

and I'm thinking of--

- Liu Xiaobo? (laughs)

- [John] Exactly.

This man won the Nobel Peace

Prize and he's in prison.

- He violated Chinese law by a big margin.

So actually the freedom of expression,

similar views are aired by many people

but he really going to the extreme.

- [John Narrating] Liu Xiaobo

challenged the government

to implement democratic reforms

and he spent a total

of 13 years in prison.

- Why can't a confident China

accept a criticism like that?

- Nobel peace committee

makes huge mistake.

They owe the Chinese an explanation.

If you cross a line, you

violate the constitution,

you violate so many laws,

you should be punished.

(somber music)

- [John Narrating] And yet in China today,

the spirit of protest and dissent

lives on in different forms.

In 2015, strikes and community protests

and activism reach record levels.

This resistance is seldom

reported in the West.

- So there are lots of protests in China.

Typical for example, land being grabbed by

officials for commercial development

and the farmers are not

being compensated properly.

But the farmers now know,

are more aware of their

rights so they protest.

Or young workers from the factory,

they demand a better wage and

a better working condition,

but many of the protests

they are economic driven,

not political driven.

They are regional, not nation-wide.

So this kind of thing is unlikely

to develop into real movement

or so-called, you call that revolution.

- [John] So the Mao's revolution

was the last revolution?

- (laughs) Well, never say never.

(helicopter whirs)

- [John Narrating] The

Japanese island of Okinawa

is occupied by 32 military installations.

From here, the United

States has attacked Korea,

Vietnam, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq.

The sky is full of planes and helicopters.

(helicopter whirs)

Wherever people go, they are fenced in

and told to keep out.

Okinawa is the front

line of a beckoning war

with China.

(people shouting)

Aged 87, Fumiko Shimabukuro

is one of the leaders of

a non-violent resistance

that's challenging

Washington's "Pivot to Asia."

(people shouting)

- [John Narrating] Fumiko is a survivor.

A quarter of the civilians on the island

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