I'm in a Dickens mood. My son, Alistair, is taking part in a performance of Oliver! later this week (Thursday to Saturday evenings, plus Saturday matinee – purchase your tickets soon to avoid disappointment) at the People's Liberation Army Opera House way across the other side of town. This means a lot of time spent with taxi drivers.
'Your Gordon Brown, he's very different from Tony Blair,' was the opening conversational gambit of yesterday's driver. He waxed lyrical, and fairly accurate, on the subject of British politics. I asked about his interest in foreign news, and he said, 'I pay a lot of attention to what's going on in developed countries.' It soon became clear that he not only paid attention, he also compared and contrasted. He talked about the rescue effort in Sichuan, worried that the rebuilding was going to be a long term challenge, and criticised government disaster preparedness, citing the shortage of tents. Then he said, 'That's the problem with a one party system. There are no other parties to scrutinise policy as there are in democracies.'
Today's taxi driver came at the whole thing from an entirely different angle. 'Have you see how everyone's been donating money all over China? he asked me. Yes, I said, I had. And I told him how my children were also involved in money-raising activities at their school for the earthquake. 'Hmm' he grunted, unconvinced. 'I get the feeling,' he said, 'that western governments haven't donated very much money for the earthquake victims. All these developed countries in Europe, and America, they can afford much more than they've given…' I told him that government donations were one thing, and that individual donations would be made through non-government channels to the many charities involved in disaster relief throughout the world. But still he wasn't willing to be won over. I suggested that the rescue and rebuilding of Sichuan would be a long-term challenge. 'No,' he said, 'There's no problem. China can do it. There are so many Chinese. We can do anything.' He was a living embodiment of the kind of nationalism that has been growing here ever since the Tibetan riots in Lhasa, and the official condemnation of the western press that followed.
The days when we can say 'the Chinese think this or that' are over, and that is heartening, no matter whether one agrees or disagrees. It proves, for one thing, that whatever the censors try to do, information from outside does make its way in. But when there are two such distinct points of view in the general public, you can bet there are two distinct points of view in the leadership too. I know I hark on about splits in the leadership, and the strain of this year's events on the unity of the party, but in the past such internal party struggles have sometimes taken us by surprise.