City basking in past and future glory with twin anniversaries
IT'S NOT OFTEN that reporters get a chance to say something nice - at least not without first landing a job with a certain official news agency.
Too often it is the nasty headlines and the critical copy below that absorb a correspondent's time. So it's something of a relief to be able to tell our readers of two smile-enhancing anniversaries in Shanghai. Almost everyone enjoys a good anniversary, and not only because it usually brings access to expense accounts.
In the last week, the big eastern city marked the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Shanghai Communique and today it observes the 12th anniversary of its Pudong development strategy.
Some less charitable critics say Pudong, the once-backward district east of the Huangpu River, is a vision of the future while the Shanghai Communique is looking a little out of date; the course of China policy set by President George W. Bush seems to be headed elsewhere.
I will not take sides in this heated debate and merely note there has been plenty of fanfare over the communique and the Pudong programme. It could be pointed out that someone may have taken liberties with the dates for the celebrations but why spoil a good party?
The Shanghai Communique - issued on February 28, 1972 - laid the foundation for formal diplomatic ties between the United States and China and the end of Washington's long-held recognition of Taiwan. The Long March to normalised relations was started under president Richard Nixon and was ultimately completed under president Jimmy Carter in 1979.
So the Shanghai festivities would not have been complete without a visit from Henry Kissinger, the national security adviser to Nixon and the real architect of US foreign policy in that era. He was made an honest man, so to speak, when he became Nixon's secretary of state in 1973.
Mr Kissinger, known for his shuttle diplomacy in his glory days, still shuttles between business deals but he took time out from his busy schedule to offer his views on Sino-US relations. Not surprisingly he took a familiar tack, saying the US must do without needless disputes which upset its ties with China.
'Those who believe that confrontation with China can be a national strategy . . . do not understand the dynamics of the current and foreseeable international system,' he said.
Fortunately, the development of Pudong has been a bit smoother than that of Sino-US ties.
Had things been different, we might have seen a Kissinger-style 'Pudong Communique' along these lines: 'The US acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Huangpu River maintain there is but one Shanghai and Pudong is part of it. The US Government does not challenge that position.'
Thankfully, that was not necessary. Shanghai's phrase-makers have, however, come up with some other good material for their Pudong policy.
They have, with some foundation, relegated to the dustbin of history that old Shanghai saying: 'Better a bed in Puxi than a house in Pudong.'
A city government handout now boasts: 'In 12 years we have taken this piece of virgin land and created a forest of skyscrapers. Pudong has changed not only the roads and houses - the people have also changed. And the smile on the face of the people in Pudong is the proof.'
On the whole, city planners have been able to say 'I told you so' to those who doubted Pudong development plans would succeed.
Few would have thought there was a way to turn the rice paddies, mud-filled alleys and crumbling factories into a modern district that would boast a stock exchange, luxury housing and industrial zones with some of the world's top companies.
Pudong has its own underground line and that is a vast improvement over the crowded ferries that once were the way to cross the muddy Huangpu River. And of course it has its Oriental Pearl television tower, which in its own quirky fashion has become a symbol of the city's ambitions.
As we celebrate Pudong, however, we might ask where Shanghai government policy goes from here. Now China has joined the World Trade Organisation, the district may no longer benefit from some of the special favours that nurtured it in the past.
For example, the People's Bank of China, the central bank, will no longer be able to tell foreign banks to move to Pudong if they want to win a share of the local currency market.
One point in its favour, however, is that the coercive measures may no longer be essential as many residents actually want to live there.
Even Disneyland may be interested in putting down roots in Pudong, if city officials are to be believed. And that would certainly be a good-news story that could put a smile on the face of a grumpy journalist. Even more so than another anniversary celebration with Henry Kissinger.
