Is China on the brink of change?

It wasn't that long ago when I thought that China might invade Taiwan, despite a newly signed Japan-US alliance that announced that they considered Taiwan a security interest. But this recent column by Daniel Ikenson titled Friday Night Lights: Cornering freedom in China seems very hopeful.

Renmin University, also known as the People's University of China, has an enrollment of almost 19,000 and is one of China's most respected schools. It was founded in 1950 by the Communist party. The children of many Chinese officials were educated there, and three generations of Chinese leaders, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and Jiang Zemin, have paid special attention to the school's development. So I was especially surprised by what I learned.

It was about 8 P.M. on a Friday when I ventured onto Renmin's campus. In a courtyard near the school's east gate, I discovered some 200 students who were exchanging views about history, economics, politics, and culture. It was U.S. history, economics, politics, and culture that they were discussing and they were speaking English.

I moved through the crowd, sampling the various conversations and marveling at the students' knowledge of American politics and history. As the only Westerner on the scene, I stood out.

Some students smiled and began to ask me questions. One asked where I was from and I said, "The United States, Washington, D.C." Immediately, he flashed two thumbs up and said "Very good. America is very good. America is our model."

He ushered me to an area of the courtyard that was drawing the largest crowds and asked me to evaluate his performance before climbing atop a soapbox. He smiled and began:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal......"

From memory, the student recited the Gettysburg Address. The audience joined in enthusiastically for the final verse:

". . . that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Is it possible that the ideas that have permeated a major university in China could soon have an impact on China's political direction? Some commentators have argued regarding China that economic freedom eventually leads to political freedom and that the current capitalist/dictatorship hybrid can't last. Reading this column, I have to agree with that assessment.