This column is being written two days before the start of the Beijing Olympic Games but we could predict that the games will be a triumph for China not only in the number of ‘Golds’ and other medals that its athletes will win, but also that it will be an occasion to mark the triumph of Chinese Civilisation.

It would be as some commentators have said, ‘China’s coming out party.’ The once magnificent ‘Heavenly Kingdom’ that went into degradation for centuries has now emerged in glory. Colonialism, warlordism, natural disasters such as famines and droughts and foreign invasions resulted in extreme humiliation of this once proud people and reduced the country to a pitiable state.

Sixty five years ago China picked up and united under the leadership of Mao Tse Tung and built a strong communist state. About two decades ago, Deng Xiao Ping shifted the economy to a capitalist mode, sending the economy spurting but keeping the leadership under the control of the Communist Party which helped it to avoid the pitfalls which Russia fell into.

Today, China stands firm on the Olympic podium not only as a leading nation in sports but a world political, military and economic power.

Rise of China

The rise to being a world power was by no means easy. China after WWII was splintered with warlords and the Communists making internecine bids for power.

The Communists triumphed against all odds but being a Communist state it had only the Soviet Union to befriend it but that friendship too did not run a steady course and in the ’60s came the Sino-Soviet split. China, Red China as it was known, was anathema to the powerful Western nations.

Asiatic and oriental nations were not trusted by the West after Japan’s role in WWII. Besides China was Marxist and atheistic, having driven out missionaries who had earlier found it to be a fertile ground.

There were penalties for countries that did business with China. Sri Lanka then known as Ceylon was one and had American aid suspended under what was called the Battle Act for its rubber-rice deal with China.

The saga of the rise of China from a war devastated, poor agricultural country run by warlords to the modern state it is has been well documented by scholars East and West.

Chinese investments

What is most striking to us has been its ability to keep Chinese sovereignty undiluted throughout its rise to power in an extremely hostile world environment. China steadfastly abided by its commitment to non interference in internal affairs of other nations. It retained its unique culture and stands distinct from all other nations.

Its economic progress has been stupendous and today is a threat to the West not only in Third World countries but in Western markets as well. Chinese investments are of such a magnitude that it could damage the strongest economies including the United States.

Recently when a Western economist was asked why President Bush who has been very vocal about violation of human rights was attending the Olympic Games a Western economist pointed out that if China withdrew its investments in American government bonds, it could send the American economy into a flat spin.

Similarly, he said that if the American economy crumbled China’s exports to America and other Western counties would fare disastrously. Thus both the West and China were now interdependent, he pointed out.

Western antipathy

The Western antipathy towards China was clearly borne out when the Olympic torch made its journey through Western cities. The hysterical outbursts against China was partly by Tibetan exiles in the country supported by Western human rights activists but more surprising was the criticism leveled by Western leaders and more particularly the Western media.

China was being targeted for violation of human rights but not most of gross violators such as America, Britain and Israel. Western media even till the eve of the commencement of the Olympic Games keep focusing on the negative aspects.

On Wednesday an ‘international’ TV channel showed tiny Chinese toddlers being put through the motions of gymnastics to project the notion that for China, winning medals is all important and that even little children were being treated like robots.

This was the same attitude of the Western media when East Germany was producing outstanding Olympic athletes. Human robots were being produced to beat Western athletes brought up under tender, loving care was the projected image.

Chinese attempts to teach the people to speak in English and be polite to visitors is a huge joke to these international TV channels and even Beijing city being turned out into a garden city is viewed with skepticism. A groundwater expert interviewed opined that two thirds of Beijing’s under water resources were now being used to keep the city green but soon after the Olympics this effort will die out!

This sudden concern of the West for Beijing’s groundwater resources is indeed a matter for amazement. And of course what better TV pictures could there be to project to the outside world than some houses in Beijing city being destroyed to make way for the Olympics!