Wednesday, April 9, 2008; A19
I was born in Shanghai in 1961 and grew up during the Cultural
Revolution. During my childhood, I saw my family lose our house. My
grandfather, who studied medicine in England, committed suicide
after he was wrongly accused of being a counterrevolutionary and a
foreign spy.
Those were the worst of times.
Since the Cultural Revolution ended in the late 1970s, however, I
have witnessed unimaginable progress in China. Changes that few
ever thought possible have occurred in a single generation. A
communist government that had no ties to the West has evolved into
a more open government eager to join the international
community.
A state-controlled economy has morphed into a market economy,
greatly raising people's standard of living. It's clear that the
majority of the Chinese people enjoy much