A Capitalist Banker's Report on Red China
Muir, James
A Capitalist Banker's Report on Red China by JAMES MUIR While we do not share all of the author's conclusions on Communist China, we believe the article below represents an extraordinary judgment...
...China is a socialist state, a managed economy adhering to the teachings of Karl Marx, with some modifications to meet Chinese reality...
...It is difficult to believe that anything resembling war is desired in China if for no reason other than that such a development would have a disastrous effect upon their plans for improvement...
...but the plunder, the privilege, and corruption are said to be gone...
...The almost fanatical drive toward hygiene and physical culture by the people is a study in itself...
...all work must stop and physical exercise be engaged in— young and old, over and under weight alike...
...There is none of the comrade technique...
...there is no pretense that all are equal...
...And yet the lot of these people is better than it was, and improving...
...as I said, in 20 years its population may be one-half of the world's...
...Their thirst for knowledge is great, and a visit to the University of Peking reveals eager and enthusiastic students...
...In hotels and restaurants there are no restrictions...
...It is more than 2,000 feet long, about 95 feet high, 555 feet wide at the base, and about 25 feet wide at the top...
...Twenty-five per cent of the world's population lives in China...
...At 10 a.m...
...Regarding the so-called recognition of China in the political sense, one just does not see how 600 million people, which may be a billion before too long, can be given myopic treatment...
...I shall give but one example, an exceptional one perhaps, of the inexorable effect of human effort in terms of human labor...
...It is difficult to give an understandable answer because for vast millions there is not such a thing as we know it...
...If the owner of the business is appointed manager he will, of course, receive the regular state salary for his type of managerial service plus the five per cent return on his investment...
...About half of the work force was provided by the army, the rest by citizens from every walk of life who live and work at the site for days or weeks as circumstance?, age, health, and physique permit...
...and 4 p.m...
...One thing is certain—China needs a multitude of things and is most desirous of trading...
...Here we have joint private-state enterprises which should be of interest to all students of comparative economic organizations...
...Actually, I saw but one Intourist official, and that was in Canton...
...A Capitalist Banker's Report on Red China by JAMES MUIR While we do not share all of the author's conclusions on Communist China, we believe the article below represents an extraordinary judgment considering the source: Mr...
...Perhaps it is inspired by the courtesy, good nature, and natural politeness of the people...
...Theoretically, I suppose one could assemble a crowd and talk about anything —but for how long I don't know...
...For millions, one sees more contentment, happiness, and, one would believe, more freedom from oppression and civil strife than previous generations have known...
...One highly placed person, not resident in China but thoroughly familiar with Chinese people, made the statement to me that the capacity of the Chinese to learn and perform is governed entirely by the teaching capacity of others who would undertake to instruct them...
...If one can picture a future nation of one billion people—skilled, educated, industrialized, and with a capactiy for work that beggars description—the high cost economy of the West is eventually in for revision...
...the church was not full, but there was a large congregation, devout to all appearances, young and old, male and female, very small children crawling in the aisles, older ones moving around from pew to pew...
...One innovation in economic organization has resulted from the liquidation of the Kuomintang...
...All I can say is that the picture must be seen to be believed...
...As I said at the beginning, one has to see what is going on with his own eyes before he can realize what the picture unfolds...
...Food is rationed on a seasonal basis, we were told...
...I have read that in visits to China one is put in the hands of Intourist, a government agency, which in effect leads one around by the nose...
...I was not under such auspices...
...It is truly stupendous...
...The clergy were all Chinese...
...it was the sound of church bells...
...But I understand that the private rights involved may be bequeathed or transferred...
...While in personal contacts I found individuals courteous, friendly, good natured, and prepared to go through a generous dose of good-humored ribbing, as a people they are exceedingly sensitive and touchy at the slightest implication of lack of confidence in their business undertakings, or a sharp or belittling criticism of them as a nation, or at the thought that there is or ever can be a divided China...
...It has a concrete core, the upstream side is clay and the other is earth, gravel, and stone...
...Anything savoring of sedition would meet with the inevitable treatment...
...I saw the new irrigation and flood control dam in the Ming Tombs Valley...
...We found the church, a large Roman Catholic edifice, within a walled enclosure...
...laundry was done and returned the same day and looked less worn than is the case on our continent...
...There is every indication that the people of China as a whole are satisfied with their government...
...There are 600 million people in the land—the net population is increasing 20 million per year...
...How long this hybrid will persist, one cannot say...
...Their present rate of progress is beyond description —but they have, as I have said, a million miles to go before the masses have a semblance of a decent standard of living...
...The wind was sown, the whirlwind is being reaped...
...As far as education of the masses is concerned, there is a long way to go...
...Just how face is to be saved there presents a staggering problem...
...When we asked what the spouter was dispensing, it was always a harangue on the virtues of hygiene, on the desirability of continuing to swat flies and kill mosquitoes, or on some such subject...
...Outside China I heard a good deal about the Chinese importing movement endeavoring to make one-sided deals, about their reneging on contracts, and so on...
...Freedom of speech, I believe, can be practiced in the criticism of how things are being done in a material way, or of the people who are charged with the responsibility of doing them— but the Chinese can't be "agin' the the government" as we know it...
...All this quite obviously indicates a political problem that will sear the very souls of some Western powers, and which at some stage is going to pose an overwhelming face-saving problem in more directions than one...
...It was practically finished and had taken only 140 days to complete...
...Unquestionably there is some subtle difference between life in China and other nations of Marxian persuasion...
...In this highly restricted sense it might even be welcomed by the authorities...
...Man, woman, and child have not risen much beyond the beast-of-burden stage...
...All work was described as "voluntary"—certainly it was unpaid...
...Twenty-five per cent of the population of the world lives in China, and in a score of years or less the population will be nearer half the world's...
...The sights one sees of the stresses, the strains, the unbelievable extent to which a human frame can be abused, leave one almost physically ill...
...there are many refugees constantly arriving in Hong Kong, for example, but they can be but a fleabite compared with the country's population of 600 million people, and we should think they are mostly small farmers who are still individualistic enough to resist being brought into the cooperative farm movement...
...I also visited a Buddhist temple...
...One wonders what China would be like today if over the last 150 years it had moved along the lines of democratic progress instead of exploitation and corruption...
...Persistently, we went down a side street from which the sound was coming...
...They are moving fast, however...
...The answer seems to be clear...
...From first to last their courtesy, assistance, kindness, and general good humor under all circumstances were of infinite help...
...The effect is almost to bewilder one when he sees what has been accomplished in less than ten years and, if he is a thinking person, to appall and dumbfound him when he realizes what had not been done in the previous 4,000, or even 100, years...
...How one can fail to recognize this colossal scene is beyond me...
...I went of my own accord, at my own expense, in quest of knowledge...
...Steps are now afoot to change the Chinese characters to the Roman alphabet which is in general use in the Western world, and it is believed this will be a tremendous help in the educational process...
...There are authorities more competent than I am to discuss this phase, but so far as I could find out all clergy must be Chinese and, if this is so, then perhaps freedom is more apparent than real...
...but I could not uncover a substantiated case...
...With little else than their bare hands, picks, and shovels, this colossal task has been accomplished...
...On a Sunday morning in Peiping we heard what sounded like church bells...
...One can go sightseeing, rubbernecking, and camera-using at will— A New Look in Politicians but must get an export permit for his undeveloped film, a rather perfunctory procedure...
...In many respects I would compare Intourist, as I saw glimpses of it functioning, as a sort of Chinese Thomas Cook & Son or American Express operating under government auspices...
...The state is supreme, man an instrument—therefore, he can't be really free...
...The so-called strategic list of prohibited exports adopted by some nations has become in Chinese eyes almost ridiculous...
...One feels no sense of domination, no depression, no lack of freedom in moving around...
...In the main cities we had good and immaculate hotel accommodations...
...I found Christian churches of many denominations...
...The growth in industry, the change in living standards, the modernization of everything, the feats of human effort, and the colossal impact of human labor are not within my power to describe...
...At first we could not believe our ears...
...Businessmen who were "clean", or free from entanglement with this organization, have been allowed to maintain their financial interest in a business and receive five per cent on their capital, even though the enterprise may be managed by state appointed personnel...
...I received invaluable assistance from Bank of China officials in arranging such things as accommodations and travel facilities...
...Those in authority freely state that the aim is to add slowly and patiently, yet without interruption, to the standard of living, that to try too much too quickly would be fatal—lead to inflation and endanger their whole program...
...they plied me with queries in return...
...Regarding the freedom to practice religion, there could be a need for this—not perhaps out of regard for religion but because there is a political problem due to the large number of Moslem followers in addition to the Buddhists...
...Right of assembly exists in the sense that crowds can immedately assemble and listen to a speaker...
...The all-important matter of trade was constantly coming up, and listening to the Chinese side of the story and to the outside of it, some of which incidentally came from traders, I was frankly a little confused...
...Corruption and graft, we were told—and confirmed by people living outside the area— have disappeared...
...Unless the whole scene is a dream or one's senses of observation and appraisal are less than useless, then I thiwk the vast majority of the people of China have a government they want, a government which is improving their lot, a government in which they have confidence, a government which stands no chance whatever of being supplanted...
...We saw such crowds at street corners and at country crossroads...
...Their explanations of their system were naturally of the highest interest, and they showed not the slightest reluctance to answer questions...
...We had some interesting discussions regarding the new Chinese Constitution, which provides for freedom of speech, right of assembly, and freedom in the practice of religion...
...It seems to meet their needs and it seems to be conscious of a great job to be done to lift the standard of living and the general way of life of the masses out of the black hopelessness that prevailed in the past...
...One hunded thousand people were working in three shifts around the clock...
...Mass was in progress...
...We of the West want no part of the political and economic philosophy that governs such states—but I wonder if we had had a similar experience as a people how we would feel about it...
...With the exception of really strategic materials, about all that is happening so far as China is concerned is that annoyance is created, the goods are forthcoming from some other source, progress is not being seriously retarded, and, ironically, a great long-run benefit may be conferred upon the Chinese by forcing them to make things for themselves...
...It cannot be that the present way of life is pleasing to everyone...
...and, if this is true, the joint private-state type of enterprise may last for generations...
...clothes pressing was prompt—dry cleaning in a matter of hours in case of need...
...It is not meant to prove or disprove anything...
...We stayed for part of the service...
...Muir is chairman and president of the Royal Bank of Canada, the largest bank in Canada, with assets of nearly $4 billion, and a zealous defender of the capitalist system.—The Editors T~1his is an attempt to report infor-mation on life and conditions in China as I saw them on a short visit...
...so perhaps freedom of speech could in our view be largely confined to the suggestion-box principle...
...I have been asked about the standard of living in China...
...One is rewarded in the material sense according to his talents and his responsibilities...
...One goes shopping as he would in Montreal—big stores, little stores, all sorts of goods...
...The cost of living is unbelievably low, probably about one-fourth to one-third of ours in many cases...
Vol. 22 • October 1958 • No. 10
