China Boom CMS

<p>15 years ago, I came to Seattle. It was my first trip to the States, first time in my life I touched a keyboard and computers, first time in my life I connected to the internet, the first time I decided to leave as a teacher and start a company, called Chinapages.com. And that was the first internet company in China, and at that time I called myself a blind man riding on the back of blind tigers. Without knowing anything about technology or computers, I started the first company. And after 4 years of terrible experience, we failed and 10 years ago, I came back again with my CFO Joseph Tsai, who's here today. We came to the Silicon Valley, with the dreams that we have a dream for Alibaba, we wanted to help SMEs in China and the world to do business online. We believe the internet is a really great place for business and we call it Alibaba because we want &quot;open sesame&quot; for SMEs, small and medium sized companies. We came here looking for venture capitalists. After 2 weeks, we were rejected by all the venture capitalists because they think, &quot;Well, it won't work, because how can you do e-commerce in China? How can you do internet in China? What are you talking about b2b and b2c? Too early for China.&quot; We were not disappointed. We were inspired by the Silicon Valley spirit, the American dreams. I remember that every evening when I walked on the street, I saw the traffic in Silicon Valley, the road to San Francisco, lined with traffic. And every evening when I go to Silicon Valley it's lined with lights, people working day and night. And every Saturday when I went, I couldn't even find a parking spot, because people were working hard on the weekends.</p>

<p>Think about the level of freedom that we enjoy. Even if it is not perfect, we are still in the mode of changing and creating more openness. If you look five years back and ten years back, we have much greater transparency and freedom [now]. Mostly, we owe this to the internet and mobile media. As you know, China has over 200 million internet population now, and over half a billion mobile users. This has created a new, formal medium that has made the dissemination of information much easier and faster. Certainly, it means that a lot of garbage also gets distributed faster. And a lot of the grass roots, for example, nationalism, got a much easier medium to be spread. But, by and large, I think internet and mobile helped the boom of information in China.</p>

<p>Before the Olympics, many of China's problems seemed clearer to me than they are now. How do you understand China?&nbsp;By the problems in its ideology? As a one party system? But, after I had worked on Olympics for 2.5 years, and in thinking about China's culture, its ancient cultural values and heritage and what was passed down to contemporary China as one of the themes in preparation for opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics and, at the same time, working with many Chinese politicians and other people, I saw the rapid changes playing out in Chinese politics, the hard work and the difficulties experienced by the Chinese officials. A lot of the problems are not as simple as they seem.<br /> <br /> On the one hand, we could feel the greatness of universal values. We should push for human rights, democracy, freedom, open society, freedom of speech, the right of political participation, etc. We should continuously try to remind society [of these values], so that society can increasingly have these universal humanistic values. Because these are all are universal, people's dignity and people's basic rights.<br /> <br /> But, on the other hand, we also feel, or understand, to a degree, that, in fact, the top leaders of the CCP, they also know that these universal values aren't something that only the Westerners hold, they are universally necessary, including for Chinese people. Chinese people have contributed to these universal values. Like the advent of the ancient merit system, where even the poorest farmers and segments of society, as long as they had talent, could become the country's leader through merit tests. Chinese people, including the government, have realized this. They also realize that this kind of political and societal openness has not been reached. It hasn't reached the societal value of putting people first. This society can be said to have an unhealthy and unsustainable distribution of the benefits derived from economic development in the long term. I feel that this is clear to the government officials.<br /> <br /> In their reality, they're firstly a party system, they're controlling the country. Firstly, they have a process, a condition: They want to build slowly, to make China a multi-party society, to have more openness and more freedom for expression. And then allow public opinion to supervise the party, to supervise the government. This process is self-conflicting and difficult one.<br /> <br /> On the one hand, what I just said is obviously the more selfish side of things, but on the other hand, when considering the responsibilities of the CCP to the public, the country and history. They will also consider mass disruptions -- they don't want the many kinds of political disruptions, thought struggles, debates and fights, anything that will disrupt rapid economic growth.</p>

<p>We have an expression, &quot;after 80s,&quot; which refers to people who were born in the 80s, twenty-somethings or thirty year olds. Today, these people are making up a larger and larger portion of the population. These people have no concept of what China was before. They complain a lot about the current situation, about social justice, social disparity between the rich and the poor, corruption; they are quite angry about these things. This is one cause of social instability. At the same time, the government conceals the details of past events. These &quot;after 80s&quot; have no idea about the three years of famine which has caused the deaths of 30 million people. Only a few people know about this huge event that the government prevents people from learning about, so the younger generation thinks that life under Mao was better. This is a very dangerous thought. The fact that the government conceals the facts about, not only the three years of famine but, a lot of important history from the people is a big problem in China. It is very dangerous that these people believe that things were better in Mao Zedong's time. This is a big problem that China is facing. The Chinese government doesn't tell the truth. Nobody trusts them. Foreigners don't trust them, the general public doesn't trust them, that's why, when the Chinese government, such a powerful group of people, negotiates with Dalai Lama, a single person, they cannot get what they want. Because they always lie, nobody trusts them. Not only in the international community, but also within China, nobody believes the Chinese government. This is a political crisis. Prime Minister Wen encourages people to tell the truth, but the atmosphere is not favorable for people to tell the truth. He, himself, does not dare tell the truth either. Let him try, he won't tell the truth about the Tiananmen incident. Nowadays, it is so dangerous to tell the truth in China and it is this atmosphere that creates a lot of problems. It's very hard to predict what lies ahead for China. How can a government for which its people have no trust continue to function? Although the economy has developed, improving people's lives, if there were no economic development, the Chinese government would have already collapsed. The Chinese government has been successful in terms of economic development, but has failed spectacularly in the protection of individuals and in setting a common goal for the people.</p>

<p>I think that's only part of it. A lot of people are very optimistic, as long as the economy develops to a certain level, there will naturally be more access to information, an openness, because more and more people will place hope in the acquistion of information. But I think that this is not necessarily true. Last March, at the time of the Olympic torch relay and the Carrefour incident, I discovered that young people, who were born in the 1980s, actually willingly believe some things or willingly obtain certain information. Such as, in order to prove that CNN is an anti-Chinese media body, they can naturally find a lot of examples of CNN opposing China. Or, if they want to prove that the Dalai Lama is someone who is causing division, they won't be willing to listen to the opinions of other people. This is something which initially surprised me, like the incident a year ago with Wang Qianyuan, the female Duke University student. Everyone is the same age or of the same age-group, why did so many people treat her with such violence? Why was there no one willing to listen and understand why the girl was giving such an opinion? Even though I also felt that the girl's opinions implied her lack of full understanding of the situation, but at the very least, we need some tolerance in this society. I think that young people now, their data would be much more developed than in my time. In the 1980s, when I was in college, there was no internet. You could only go see some books, and these books were also limited, not like today where there are so many books in book stores. It was also very hard for us to leave the country, it was hard for us to get out of the country and personally experience what was happening outside of China. However, sometimes I think that in fact, the college students of the 1980s seem to be more broad-minded, with a more multi-faceted way thinking and more tolerant than today's students. In the end, I think that this is a question of the method of thought. After 1989, the whole of society became secularized. Everyone was seeking true benefits in life. And a lot of people gave up their independent mode of thinking. This wasn't encouraged by schools or society. Under these circumstances, a lot of young people now may be very smart, they can go to well-known universities all over the world. However, when you really converse with them, you will discover that they are not really willing to consider new voices or adopt a more dialectical method of analyzing problems. And I think that right now, in relation to Chinese society, this is a cause of much worry today. Why do I write blogs and write so many things? I really hope that when there is so much information, one shouldn't follow the majority, but one should firstly quiet down, think by yourself, consider opinions, then make a decision. Because today's society makes decisions too quickly. Once there is a bit of information, this is immediately followed by a judgment: the situation is like this, the person is like this, just like this. And, in reality, this is not true. Because, as more information comes, you find out that the situation is nothing like this. However, there are some people who don't care that this does not reflect the real situation, and they won't listen once they have decided that this is so. They will reject outside voices. So I think that instead, since the development of the economy has gotten underway, this may become an increasingly serious problem. Because, that year, a book titled &quot;Chinese People say No&quot; was published. It was during the U.S bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999. A book has come out these past few days by the same people, called &quot;The Chinese People are not Happy.&quot; I think that in &quot;Chinese People say No&quot;, it is about how China should position itself, how to develop relations with the rest of the world. &quot;The Chinese People Are Not Happy&quot;, what they say is&nbsp;how China should lead the world. Especially I think with regard to the financial crisis which made everyone think that China turned into the best place in the world, I actually meet a lot of people who think, yes, the world is now dependent upon us. And I think that a lot of the Western media intentionally say how good China is, making a lot of people think better of themselves. So sometimes I think that with regard to the voices of those outside who deliberately flatter China, including those within China who painstakingly flatter themselves, and with the impression of a flourishing economy, this causes a lot of Chinese people to be ignorant of what is really happening in China. Making them believe that China is really flourishing. So, I don't think that there is direct correlation between economic growth and the increased flow of information. Instead, I think that we must be careful of allowing this growing self-confidence to suppress the real voices from outside, especially voices of criticism or those they do not want to hear.</p>

<p>The first stage in China's economic development was its adopting openness. We believe that China chose the correct path for herself, this is to say that China needed to open up to the world. It provided more opportunities for Chinese people to transact freely, to do business. So, each person could give the world what they thought it needed based on their own understanding and hopes and China became the world's largest producer nation. You can say that &quot;Made in China&quot; also became&nbsp; the most important concept to people. All sorts of products, such as toys, other industrial products, were all provided by China. It was a period of catching up for China. There is a metaphor: It was like China was walking up from a valley. So actually China had a very large niche, so it was normal that China's development was booming. The second stage is the period from 1990s until today. The boom of this period relies to a large extent on the development of new technology. China's adoption of the internet provided a lot of opportunities for young people, in particular, our new generation, to create new ventures. Because they have these ventures, the youth is willing to try new things. They say, &quot;Hey, I'm going to try to do this, I'm going to try to do that. If I fail, I still have other opportunities.&quot; This was a characteristic of the late 1990s. In reality, China wasn't just an economy based on manufacturing, but it turned into an economy that produced a lot of creations. While a lot of these creations are still just copy cats, this proves that the Chinese have learned how to learn. I think, in the first stage, we still hadn't learned how to learn from others yet, we mainly explored the world, but in the second stage, we started to learn. So, I think that the challenge of the next phase is very important. The challenge is how to innovate in China, to move away from just this concept of &quot;Made in China.&quot; I think this is a huge challenge and this kind of economic development depends on how to increase societal diversity. People no longer tolerate the work unit control, government control, or internet restrictions that they have traditionally experienced. If people can trade freely, if they can interact freely, their focus is on, &quot;How can I fairly take my opportunities and exercise my rights?&quot; If they have these sorts of opportunities, I think China's economy will have a longer term booming potential. They can definitely, within 20 or 30 years, go from today's per capita income of $2,000 to a per capita income comparable to that of developed nations like $5,000, $8,000, $9,000 or more. They can truly realize a more fair distribution of wealth in the whole of society. I think this is the most important thing.</p>

<p>Basically, my story is almost driven by the internet. The internet has turned me from a programmer into a journalist and commentator. My story may rarely happen in other countries. I, a person from a computer sciences background, was just publishing articles online, and now I have become a journalist and professional columnist. Since 1998, the internet economy has provided a great opportunity for local young and potential elites. It has secured the mobility of the society in a way similar to the former imperial examination. Any person, even a poor kid from the country side, would have the opportunity to be interviewed by the Emperor so long as they could pass the imperial examination. And then, they could very possibly be sent to another province to be the Governor. Social mobility is one of the reasons why the feudal system was able to persist, with such stability, for such a long time. In this way, young, local elites can become national elites through relatively fair means. So, the whole group of social elites had a sense of solidarity and hope. However, the system was abolished at the beginning of last century by the Qing Dynasty. Several years after came the revolution. Why? Because those revolutionaries were basically those people who would have been able to become officers, but the channel to becoming an officer had been cut off. In this way, they had no other choice than to become revolutionaries. So, a lot of people, myself included, wondered how the revolution could have come so fast. I think there is a cause effect relationship between the abolition of imperial examination and the revolution. Why did the Cultural Revolution end so quickly and cleanly? It had to do with the <em>Shang Shan Xia Xiang</em>, the down to the country side movement. When it was implemented in 1968, students lost the opportunity to go to school, they were all sent to the countryside. Once social mobility was cut off, society felt no close, personal benefit from the regime. So, I've always believed that if a society can maintain a relatively fair system that takes in local elites and makes them into regional and national elites, no matter what issues may arise, that society will persist. The Internet has achieved this function. Because of the internet, a local &quot;nobody&quot; can, in an instant, be brought by a company or the media to big cities like Guangzhou, or Shanghai, or Beijing, just because their blog or their website proves your ability. A lot of my internet friends have come to Beijing to become media members. So, the media's transformation into a mode for local elites to come to the cities has created a new version of this imperial examination. This transformation has maintained the limited social mobility of this nation. Of course, this social mobility is being slowly destroyed by factors such as house prices. You simply cannot afford a decent house and life anymore. So, in this way, people are being prevented from becoming elites. Even more people will leave Beijing, but let's not talk about the future. In the past 30 years, especially in the 12 years since its introduction in 1998, the internet has been the new imperial examination. It has relatively fairly turned local nobodies into household names with decent lives and even decent apartments.</p>

<p>I feel that on this issue, I am practically a genius. I immediately felt, as soon as I finished designing that crappy Bird's Nest, that it would become the site for a very disgusting event. It was instinctive, because I didn't know for sure that it would happen this way, nor did I wish for it. But as it turned out, my instinct was correct. It was even more disgusting than I'd imagined. I think today most people can understand my actions then, which at the time seemed very strange. They would ask, &quot;What's wrong with this guy?&quot;<br /> <br /> Of course, I'm talking about Chinese people. Because everyone who experienced the Olympics in Beijing, when they think back to it today, would agree that it's nothing but a nightmare. It's an extremely strange and surreal nightmare. It didn't, even nearly, have the effect that it should have had, because it wasn't a product of a democratic society. It did not lend any productive or creative power to social reform or democracy, it was merely used as a PR tool by a very corrupt political power.</p>

<p>China&rsquo;s been modernizing throughout its history. When Chinese look backwards, they see moments in which there was traumatic historical change that put China, if not #1 on Earth, at least among the great civilizations. China&rsquo;s very notion of itself is that it is a middle kingdom. <i>Zhongguo</i>, the word in Chinese for China, itself means middle kingdom. That is a term that dates back at least 2500 to 3000 years. And China&rsquo;s unification, that is a single state governing all that is China, goes all the way back to the 3rd Century BCE. And that effort to unify the country back in the third century BC put China in the forefront of modernization back then. Chinese today, they don&rsquo;t know all the history, but they study when they&rsquo;re kids in school. They study about what they should be proud of. And, yes, the state helps organize it, most of the textbooks are very rote, but this feeling of identity is not rote. It is something that keeps coming back. When the Olympics takes place, the Chinese not only had a good Olympics, a great Olympics, it had a spectacular Olympics. And what did they do in the opening ceremony of those Olympics? Every episode that you saw there, right back to the drummers and the dancers and all of that, had historical references. And it was designed to dazzle you on television, which it did, and it was also designed to say to the people in China that, &quot;This is a great moment given all of that legacy. We&rsquo;re going back 2000 years and this is another great moment for us.&quot; The boom, therefore, has political, educational, social, historical, cultural factors that are incredibly important.</p>

<p>I think that the advent of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao helped to crystallize a new understanding of the importance of the environment and how the environment related to a number of different things that were more important to the Chinese leadership. And when they came in with their ideas about harmonious society, I guess this was about '02-'03, it was really a broader effort, that encompassed the environment, that said, &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had 20 odd years of pell-mell, unfettered growth. Now, we look and we see there are many, many negative ramifications of this growth and the environment was one of them. How do we bring the environment back in sync?&rdquo; So, I think this was a moment when they realized that the environment actually could hinder economic growth. If you don&rsquo;t have enough water to run your factories, as happened in Xi'an at one point, for example, you don&rsquo;t have economic output. &nbsp;So, land is becoming degraded and villages are becoming submerged in sand, as is happening in northern China, and then, you have tens of millions of migrants, environmental refugees, within your own country. They have to find new jobs, new housing and develop a new educational infrastructure for these people. There are enormous costs then, that are associated with what had seemed to be, essentially, a free ride.</p>