Today marks the 10th anniversary of the tragic climax of the 1989 demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. It has been a long decade. The world is much changed, as is China. Deng Xiaoping, "the Little Helmsman," the man who set China on the path to economic transformation, is dead. His legacy survives him, however. China continues to grow and modernize, and its climb toward regional power -- and the country's thirst for the recognition that comes with it -- is unabated.
But "the new China" also shares many features of the China of 10 years ago. In this, too, Deng's legacy looms large. The main continuity is the very foundation of the system. Deng offered the Chinese people a simple bargain: economic opportunities in exchange for political submission. Wealth and prosperity were available, but at the price of unquestioned domination by the Chinese Communist Party. It was a cynical bargain, and it seems to have paid off -- at least temporarily. But quiescence will not last.
There is no doubt that the vast majority of Chinese people enjoy better lives than any generation before them. Today's Chinese are richer, better educated and more worldly than their parents and grandparents. This new sophistication is sometimes manifested in cynicism, but that is only skin-deep. The reaction to the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade is proof of the powerful emotional currents that have survived the assault of materialism and prosperity.