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LISA: 2008 was a milestone year for China, the highlight being the Summer Olympics. The Games capped more than 10 years of growing prosperity, prestige, and influence. But China also experienced some significant low points this year, including the crackdown in Tibet, scandals over contaminated milk, and a slowing economy. The World's Beijing correspondent is Mary Kay Magistad. Mary Kay, an extraordinary year for China. You have watched an awful lot of transformation in China over the years. I wonder where you see it as having been and where it's going?

MARY KAY: Well, I think this year will be remembered as a year that went quite differently from how the Chinese government had wanted it to go. There was the period of the Olympics themselves, where you know, if you watched on television, it really did look picture perfect. But on either side of the Olympics, all kinds of problems that the government really didn't want to be there in this banner year. You know, the snowstorm, the Tibet protest, the Sichuan earthquake, was actually an opportunity to bring people together. So even though it was a disaster, it did have a positive side. But then the Melamine scandal and the economic problems now. You know, the government had hoped that it would gain a lot more, you know, sort of soft power and political capital with the way it ran things this year. And instead it finds itself trying to keep people from starting to question, you know, “is this government really doing for us what we need it to be doing?”

LISA: And I imagine that's being exacerbated by the fact that the economy is not doing well there?

MARY KAY: Absolutely. The government's always said, “You know, as long as we can keep delivering economic growth, people will see, you know, we're the government that delivers.” Well, if people start getting laid off, it's going to have to be answering to a society that's become a little more used to speaking out and expressing discontent. And there is pressure being felt in various government circles that it really needs to step up to the plate and deliver before that discontent gets out of hand.
And in fact, one very interesting development that just happened in the last few weeks was that about 500 Chinese lawyers, academics, intellectuals, signed something they called “Charter ‘08”. And they were trying to do something like what the Czechs did in 1977, calling on a Communist government or an Authoritarian government to allow democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly. The government's response to this was to arrest some of those who had organized the Charter and organized the petition.

LISA: This is the Chinese government's response?

MARY KAY: That's right. But the question that was asked in the Charter remains, and let me just share a little bit of it with you. What it said was, “The Chinese government's approach to modernization has proved disastrous. It has stripped people of their rights, destroyed their dignity, and corrupted normal human intercourse. So we ask: where is China headed in the 21st century? Will it continue with modernization under authoritarian rule, or will it embrace universal human values, join the mainstream of civilized nations and build a democratic system? There can be no avoiding these questions.”

LISA: These are Chinese lawyers who wrote this?

MARY KAY: These are Chinese lawyers and academics and other intellectuals.

LISA: Wow. What do you make of that?

MARY KAY: I make of it that Chinese civil society is growing, that in many smaller ways than this, people are demanding more of a voice for themselves. Now, this particular call for democracy and freedom of speech goes beyond what most people are willing to say in public. But many people over the course of recent years have been claiming some small part of that for themselves anyway. And I think the people who signed this charter felt now is the time to actually say, “Hey look. We've had 30 years of economic reform in China. This year marks the 30th anniversary. It's time to start thinking about the other part of the puzzle that Dong Ziou Ping talked about when he started all this. He said that he could see having democracy in China in 50 years. Well, it's 30 years in. What are we going to do about it?”

LISA: Mary Kay, for you right now, and – and it is 2009 already in China, Happy New Year – where do you see China right now at this point in its history? I mean, with the 60th anniversary of Communist party rule coming up in China, it is a pivotal period.

MARY KAY: Well, this is a China that is rising in the world, that is increasingly confident but then curiously at the same time, still sort of a little insecure and thus very conscious of needing the respect of countries outside, particularly the United States. But within China, as people have become more confident and a little bit more prosperous, they've also become more vocal.
And I think this is a very interesting time in China for that very reason.
So what the government's able to do in terms of delivering what people expect and what they now feel to be their right, it will be very interesting to watch you know, how much it's able to succeed in doing that.

LISA: Well, we know that's officially another month to go until Chinese New Year, but for us, for now, Happy New Year, Mary Kay. Thanks for all your wonderful work and talk to you in 2009.

MARY KAY: Thanks, and Happy New Year to you, too.

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