July 31, 2002

READ ALL ABOUT IT IN CHINA DAILY

By Tom Plate

How serious is North Korea about actually reforming the economy?

(C) 2002 Asia Pacific Media Network

LOS ANGELES --- Last week reports streamed out of Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, that the government was actually considering the introduction of market reforms to revive its moribund Stalinist economy. And this week the leaders of the neighboring Communist state of China were conferring at their annual summer seaside retreat about how to keep their own robust reforms moving forward. One country -- destitute and desperate -- is thinking about instituting economic reforms. The other is actually doing it. The latter, which sends North Korea considerable food and aid, is one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

Can it possibly be that the ruling son of the late founder of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is finally coming to terms with the insanity and the inanity of his Stalinist-model system and truly wants to introduce modern market reforms -- as Beijing has urged? Many of the 22 million Koreans in the North are either starving or suffering from severe malnutrition. This is a moral and political outrage, and it must stop -- even as Kim Jong Il wants to implement any reforms without losing control, as per Gorbachev.

That, of course, is precisely what the Communist Party in the People’s Republic of China has achieved. Even though the Communists are still in charge, the economy continues to grow. Whether they will be able to ride herd indefinitely over one of the world’s most rapidly developing and changing countries remains to be seen. Indeed, party big shots themselves are wondering about that at their policy retreat. Still, there’s no gainsaying the extraordinary extent of the reforms on the economic side of the Chinese equation. The political-freedom side is, of course, another issue.

Wei Ke, deputy editor of Business Weekly, published by China Daily, the country’s leading English-language paper, recently told me: “Continued economic progress is pivotal to our future. In many ways, China is still a developing nation, and there is still very much work to be done.” Then he added: “Without more reform -- and then more and more reform -- even the unity of the nation could be endangered.”

He’s right -- and the Chinese tend not to be smug about what they have accomplished economically, even as the North Korean government has been so immorally complacent about not bothering with reform at all. A glance at his own Business Weekly more than confirms the sense of China’s urgency. A lead “exclusive” story reveals the government’s plans to end its monopoly on grain distribution in favor of a market-oriented system. That may not be big news in the United States, where the food retail business is cutthroat; but in China that kind of reform is, as it were, revolutionary.

China’s evident response to the United States’ mounting telecom, energy and accounting scandals is revealing. Yes, they have unfortunately induced some Chinese to question whether what the United States has been preaching -- accountability and transparency -- is still worth practicing. But so far the overall verdict appears to be yes. “We can point to the shortcoming of the U.S. accounting system and draw lessons from it,” declaims a lead editorial in the paper, “but that should not lead to a relaxation in our struggle for honesty and efficiency.” Editorials generally reflect official party thought.

Even so, is this paper the Business Weekly of China, or Business Week of the United States? A full-page article explores further government deregulation of what it quite accurately terms “China’s rickety stock market.” Interesting. Another hails plans for a new index futures system, a complex operation, in China or anywhere. Another praises the people at Ramada, the major brand of Marriott International, for teaming up with Air China to pump up tourism.

Other articles -- with nifty headlines such as “Competition Heats Up in Microwave Oven Industry,” not to mention “Soy Farmers to Be Full of Beans” -- may not rival the New Yorker magazine for wit. But they do suggest a measure of independence of spirit and thought not commonly associated with a dour Communist regime.

In fact, China is so far down the reform road compared to DPRK that, to catch up, Kim and his team of economic advisors will need to make a gigantic galactic leap. And they will require the help of South Korea, to which it last week finally expressed official regrets for the June 29 naval clash. Why should it be so inconceivable for the leaders of a nation of only 22 million to try to feed, clothe and house their people properly, even saddled as it is with the impediment of Communist government? Just look at what its next-door neighbor of 1.3 billion -- also run by a Communist government -- has accomplished so far. And they can read all about it.

Previous Columns:

Australia's Shrewd Mating Instincts (July 24, 2002)

When the Shoe's On the Other Foot (July 17, 2002)

From Yellow Cards to the Yellow Sea: Sunshine Policy Gets Wounded Again (July 10, 2002)

Why Papa Shouldn't Preach (July 3, 2002)