“Democracy is an ideal oh human being like freedom and rights. Now, to get them, we have to sacrifice our young lives. The hunger strike is the choice of those who have not choice. We are fighting for life with the courage to die. Dear father, dear mother don’t be sad, we don’t want to break your heart while we say farewell to life. We have just one hope, that what we do, let all leave better. We have just one prey: don’t forget that is not the death what for we struggle. Democracy is not something that concerns few people. The fight for democracy could not be won by one generation…” says a piece of the Manifest of the students of Square Tienanmen.

At a distance of twenty years from Tienanmen Square massacre of that June of 1989, now that the “Middle Kingdom” has become an economic power, admired and feared at the same time, from east to west, it is often said, above all by political leaders, the sentence : “ It is time to go over Tienanmen”. And Chinese political leaders have been the first to try to go beyond. Although the transition of People’s Republic of China from a planned economy to the so-called “market socialist economy” have begun in the late 1978, with the demaoization, that progressively redirected the path of development towards a wider opening to foreign countries, growing internationalization, valorization of the geographic, cultural and social regional specific characters and increasing economic liberalization – though not supported by relevant political reforms – it is after Tienanmen that there is a strong acceleration of the economic reforms.

Deng Xiaoping, declaring that “being rich is glorious” tried to use the wish of richness and consumism as the “opium” of Chinese people. Many times after that 1989, Deng Xiaoping and then Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao explained that the prosperity of recent years is due to the action of the Political Party that brought to an end the socials revolts of the protesters since their rising. The massacre has been the least of evils, given the great welfare followed. Inevitably, the path of economic growth of China re-proposes the question: “Economic growth needs democracy?” It is a crucial point that remind the well-known debate between Luigi Einaudi e Benedetto Croce on “liberism and liberalism”. The history of political science is full of arguments in favour or against the relation between political freedom (democracy) and economic freedom (free market).

In the last twenty years of the 20th century, the prevailing theorem in political philosophy was that, although there is no evidence of logical relation between democracy and free market, historic experience showed that, in the long time, countries politically repressed, in case of extension of the margins of economic freedom, should have been obliged to slacken the links of repression, till the collapse of the system, due to the inner thrust coming from a inedited growth of the middle, entrepreneurial and capitalistic class. This theorem seems not to be real when we look at cases like China, where an extraordinary economic development has not been followed by a so extraordinary democratic development.

The figures representing China, are really impressive: a population of more than 1,2 billion people and an average growth of the GDP, around 10% during the last ten years, with a peak of 11,8% in 2007. Any country in the world and, European Union first, political dwarf but economic giant, could stay indifferent to those figures. After adopting a number of restrictive measures, like arms embargo on China following the facts of Tienanmen Square, the European Union, in the middle of globalization and enlargement process, began again a soft dialogue with the Chinese Empire, although it was mainly an economic dialogue. And, as far as we know, the dialogue has produced important results.

China is today the market that growing faster in the world in terms of imports from EU: in 2008, EU exports towards China have been around 78,4 billion Euro with an increase of 9% in comparison to the previous year and, if we consider the years 2004-2008, the increase, in the whole, was equal to 65%. In the last five years, Chinese imports towards EU have been growing around 18% per year and a soft decrease has been recorded only in 2008, due to the global economic crisis. Last year the imports of goods from China reached an amount of 248 billion euro. Those, are numbers that make us thin , above all considering that, until twenty years ago, the trade exchanges between Europe and China were near to zero.

At the invitation of Mr. José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China paid an official visit to the Headquarters of the European Commission on 30th January 2009. The visit successfully promoted mutual trust and bilateral cooperation. Leaders reaffirmed their commitment to further develop the EU-China comprehensive and strategic partnership, and pledged to step up their dialogue so as to improve mutual understanding, appropriately manage differences and expand and deepen cooperation in all fields on the basis of the principles of equality, mutual trust and respect.

Economic development does not mean democratic or social development, as well as economic dialogue is not intercultural dialogue. Nevertheless, Chinese opening, although mainly due to economic interest, is however an “opening” that, inevitably goes beyond the mere economic sphere to enter the social, the cultural dimension, since it gives people the possibility to relate one another and, although in a restricted way, to know different realities and cultures and then to contaminate each others. Cultural contamination as the way for freedom and democracy.

Emanuela Scridel. Economist – International Strategy and EU Expert