The Tank Man

PBS Frontline just aired a great documentary on China. As we all know the rapid economic growth of China has been THE economic story of the last 5 years. The documentary reminds us of the events of 1989 in Tiananmen Sqaure. I remember being in grad school, and following the events with my fellow graduate students from China, Taiwan, and Hongkong. While the mainland Chinese students seemed more annoyed at the students, the goverment response was definitely condemned by all my classmates. What most Westerners sometimes forget is that the economic growth of China has not yet benefited a vast majority of its citizens. Most industrial jobs and foreign investments are in the major cities. A vast majority of people are peasants who live far from the flourishing coastal regions. With the move to a free market system, education and healthcare are no longer free, and retirement benefits are no longer guaranteed by the state. Why doesn't the goverment invest more to lift its citizens out of poverty? The film does a good job of explaining the plight of the worker in contemporary China.

A really sad part of the program is when the host showed the picture of the "Tank Man" to 4 students from Beijing University ("Bei Da"), the top school in China. None of the students recognized the picture! Search on google for images of Tiananmen Square, and you will see the "Tank Man" all over the place. Do the same search inside China, "Tank Man" is nowhere to be found. Thank you google, msft, yahoo and cisco! The tragic thing is that in 1989, Bei Da students where at the center of the demonstrations.

While I admire what the Chinese goverment has done on the economic front, I think more needs to be done to help the increasing number who are being left behind and those that are being exploited. Its a delicate balance, and governing a large country is hard to begin with. But I think they need to do more to build on the solid growth that has already been achieved.

This is an amazing program, I highly recommend it. Go HERE, to view the entire documentary online.

UPDATE: Here is the transcript of an online chat with the filmmaker.