Nǐ hǎo, China! Have you eaten?

Because it sounds so much like the greeting of a Siamese cat, most westerners have little trouble learning to say hello in Chinese: "Nee-how."

The Chinese themselves, however, usually greet each other with phrases like "Chī le ma?"

It is an echo from the time before Communist Chairman Mao Zedong died 40 years ago, when there was concern that a friend met on the street (except among privileged Communist Party leaders) might be on the verge of starvation.  It literally means "Have you eaten?"

Back in the bad old days, China was an agricultural society, and because the Communist government owned ALL land in China (as it still does), most people were essentially share croppers who lived more like slaves, if that well.

Our guide Yuan told us about his own childhood in a poor farming family.  He was sent to live with an aunt because his mother did not have enough nutrition in her meager diet to produce sufficient breast milk to feed him.  As he grew older, he subsisted mostly on sweet potatoes the family grew, supplemented by weak broth made with weeds and roots scavenged in the woods.  Farmers did not actually own their crops when picked, however, instead being paid a less-than-sufficient wage for reaping and sowing the state's harvests.

The Reforms of 1978 instituted after Mao's death have fortunately improved the plight of average Chinese citizens, most of whom left the rural farming struggles for industrial work in big cities.

"Now children even turn their noses up at lobster," said Yuan.  "They would not do so, if they knew how it feels to have empty tummy."

His family was actually better off than most, because his grandfather had sold his 20-acre farm just before the Communists nationalized everything.  The proceeds allowed his family to raise two pigs annually, one for the family to butcher and salt to preserve for gradual consumption over the course of the year, and the other to sell to help meet other needs.

Yuan said his bedroom window on the farm had been next to the pig sty, and he hated that smell.  It brought to mind my own summer visits to my granddad's farm in Alabama.  Granddaddy's pig sty was 30 yards down the dirt driveway from his house, but I remember that pungent odor walking past on my way across the road to play with the neighbor Treadwell kids, one of whom later bought Granddaddy's farm for just enough to allow him to move to an old cottage in town and retire (far from lavishly) when he was about 80.  Granddaddy probably wouldn't have retired then had he not been lamed by a cow that unexpectedly knocked him off his feet.

By contrast, if Yuan's grandfather had kept his land until the inevitable state confiscation, he would have been branded as a rich landlord, pilloried by the government and his community.

After years of American capitalist influence, starvation is no longer a significant concern in China, at least in cities we visited on our tour of Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai.  They had to give up the fresh air of the countryside for polluted city life, but it definitely beats starving in squalor.

Incidentally, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party deemed Mao to have been 70% good and 30% bad, so monuments to the late Chairman remain in prominent places, including Tiananmen Square.

The Central Committee's 205 full members and 171 alternate members continue to rule the country, with the potential of an iron fist but currently seemingly a steady, moderate hand.

Yes, they limit intangibles like completely free internet access, banning Google ostensibly because Google refused to screen out pornography and violent content, but also because of political views which might not be favorable to China's Communist Party.

Crimes of all types are still severely punished in China, which is soberingly represented in the Richard Gere movie, Red Corner, which I happened to find on cable a week before our trip. Guilty until proven innocent, Gere’s character is told that if he pleads “not guilty,” then he will be executed within a week and his family will be charged for the bullet. His only chance of a merciful court that will only require a long prison sentence is to plead “guilty."

Harsh justice is admittedly a two edged sword, deterring potential thugs so that it's safe to walk through big city streets any time, day or night.  It is the only country I recall where I've seen zero graffiti defacing buildings and walls in its big cities.



Popular President Xi Jinping recently began his third term, breaking the Reform's two term presidential limit without much objection.  Yesterday, Xi praised Karl Marx on his 200th birthday as "the greatest thinker of modern times," but most seem ready to dismiss that as red meat for the Communist Party leaders who keep him in power.  "Socialism with concessions for the Chinese market" is how Yuan described their government.

It is interesting to note that a quick internet search reveals Xi 's father was Mao's right-hand man, serving in a series of posts including Propaganda Chief, Vice Premier and Vice Chairman.

Whereas Chairman Mao wanted isolation from the world, however, President Xi has championed globalization, with the goal of making China the dominant world power by the end of the 21st Century.

As Japan emerged from World War II using Edwards Deming's theory of "Never-ending Improvement" to build a reputation for quality, I would summarize China's strategy for the past few decades as "Always close the deal and maximize employment, regardless of short term profitability."

It has taken forms like dumping steel and other products at below cost in foreign markets like the USA, resulting in the devastation of those industries (and the well-compensated jobs that go with them) in our own country, and high tariffs on imports into China to protect their own fledgling industries from free and fair foreign competition.

"Made In China 2025" now seeks to move China beyond their reputation for cheap goods and labor to more advanced technological leadership.

This has not been an exclusively stealth strategy, and many American capitalists and government leaders have padded their own pockets while helping China achieve their goals. At the same time, American consumers have benefited from lower prices, so no one is without some responsibility.

China has come a long way in a very short time.

Many of us were admonished by our mothers to finish the food on our plates, because there were children starving in China.

Over the last ten years, however, it is in the United States where tent cities have popped up, including near China's Consulate office in Los Angeles where we attained our visas for this trip.

Chinese mothers could begin using a similar non-sequitur about America to get their own children to eat their vegetables, but hopefully we've begun getting the USA back on track.