Chapter 37 7. The Rising Chinese Spirit

History seems destined to test our nation, and chose 2008, 30 years after the reform and opening up.First, there was the freezing rain and snow disaster that spread over half of China, then the riots in Lhasa, the obstruction of the Olympic torch relay in the west, and the landslide and landslide in the land of abundance.These sudden challenges are a test of China's comprehensive strength, our development model and institutional capacity, and our nation's cultural heritage and spiritual strength.Thankfully, we passed these tests with high marks: a freezing snowstorm made the journey home extremely difficult, but the whole country pulled together, with determination and love, to get through it.The provocations of anti-Chinese forces for Tibetan independence failed to realize the "cassock revolution" they expected, but instead made Chinese people all over the world unite like never before.The Sichuan earthquake caused the whole country to mourn, and the world was shocked.The people of the country did not know how many tears shed, but the catastrophe also brought out the enhancement of our national strength and our national spirit of self-improvement.Looking back, these bad things have turned into good things in a sense. The Chinese nation has never been so united, so confident, and so rock-solid as it is today.

The world will especially remember China's strength, efficiency, responsibility, Chinese elements and Chinese spirit shown in the 2008 earthquake relief, because all these touched the world.Facts have proved that our development model, although not perfect, has created huge social wealth in the past 30 years and fundamentally changed the situation of poverty and weakness in China for thousands of years. The strength of China today is amazing: The collection of so many materials in such a short period of time really requires money, goods, and people. The donations from the people have exceeded tens of billions within a few days.Our soldiers, doctors, nurses, and rescuers are well-equipped and well-trained.An Indonesian friend asked me: "Is Mianyang a developed area in China?" I said no.He said: "Then how can there be highways, chain supermarkets, and so many cars, color TVs, and mobile phones?" The subsidy we gave to the affected residents was 600 yuan per person per month, with an average of 20 yuan per day, more than half of the world's population. Average daily income (less than US$2, approximately equal to RMB 12).How could all this be possible without the reform and opening up of the past 30 years.

Our system has created Chinese efficiency, surprising the world.The coordination of different government departments is fast, efficient, and orderly. More than 100,000 elite troops, dozens of professional arms, nearly 400 professional rescue teams, and nearly 50,000 medical personnel rushed to the front line as soon as possible, and quickly covered every affected village.Without the reform, opening up and institutional innovation in the past 30 years, how could our country's management and coordination have such efficiency. The sense of social responsibility of Chinese citizens has also been fully demonstrated in this ordeal.Hundreds of thousands of volunteers came from all directions, dragging suitcases, carrying burdens, and driving self-driving cars, flocking to the disaster area from all over the country.Many of them belong to China's rapidly rising emerging class, from entrepreneurs to company employees, from car club members, outdoor sports enthusiasts to young Internet enthusiasts, they constitute a new force for the earthquake relief.Our civil society and government forces have achieved a high degree of benign interaction and jointly built a powerful rescue system.The individual choices of our citizens have been unprecedentedly diversified, but they are also unprecedentedly consistent with the overall will of the society. All of this is of great significance to China's social progress and the construction of China's future civil society.

In this struggle, we also saw a lot of shining Chinese elements.Our leaders practiced the old adage that "the people are the most important, the country is second, and the king is the least". They rushed to the disaster area as soon as possible to direct the disaster relief.Our teachers practice the motto of "being a teacher by example" and are desperate to save students.Our hundreds of thousands of soldiers are working hard to save people almost day and night. The generals are at the forefront, taking the lead and fulfilling their mission. This embodies the concept of "people's army" that is difficult for the West to understand.Ordinary Chinese people show so much humanity in the Chinese tradition.The most ordinary human details of our people have touched many foreigners: an old woman whose house was destroyed gave up her mineral water to foreign journalists; They insisted on refusing to charge for it; chain supermarkets provided goods to the victims for free; German volunteers donated tents to the disaster-stricken villagers, and the villagers must reciprocate with a few baskets of duck eggs.A British reporter saw the homework book left by the dead child in Yingxiu Village, which was written in dense and neat square characters. He said with emotion: The homework of a child in a backward village in China can make all the children of the same age in Britain feel ashamed.Foreign news outlets are generally surprised: Although it is such a big disaster, the number of people affected and the area affected by the disaster are dozens of times larger than that of New Orleans in the United States, but there are almost no vicious looting incidents. There were many cases of robbery, rape and shooting.

We have done things that many Western countries have failed to do.Our leaders boarded a plane to the disaster area 2 hours after the earthquake.When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, former US President Bush continued to take vacations on his Texas farm, and Bush was criticized by the US media at the time.Our army activated the emergency response mechanism within 20 minutes after the earthquake, and tens of thousands of soldiers rushed to the disaster-stricken area for earthquake relief.In contrast, in the summer of 2007, Greece experienced a rare forest fire, but the Greek army was weak in dispatching and missed the best time for disaster relief, resulting in huge losses of life, property and ecology.We put saving lives above all else, "a glimmer of hope, a hundredfold effort", the last person rescued included a widowed and lonely old man in his 80s who had been buried in the ruins for more than 160 hours. In August 2003, France The sudden heat wave caused more than 10,000 elderly people to die unnaturally, shocking the world.In terms of human rights, although China still has a lot of room for improvement, in terms of respecting the right to life, China's great practice today is enough to shame many Western countries that talk about human rights every day.

How many people have worried that the tide of economic marketization has made our society indifferent, selfish and distrustful, but this sudden catastrophe shows how profound the cultural heritage of our Chinese nation is, and everyone regardless of region or class Regardless of whether they are rich or poor, those who have money donate money and contribute powerfully. From the top leaders to the "post-80s" soldiers and volunteers, they all show the true love of the world and specific patriotic actions.This earthquake relief has also become a great milestone in our society's kindness and spiritual experience.Facts have proved that: in the process of China's prosperity, our unique cultural heritage, once activated, can make our society more warm and harmonious.

Behind China's strength, efficiency, responsibility and cultural elements is the rise of a great Chinese spirit.The characteristics of this spirit are: in order to govern, one must work hard; in serving the people, one must be conscientious;The rise of this spirit is especially valuable in today's modernized and diversified society. The formation of universal values ​​in the world is an interactive process in which different civilizations learn from each other's strengths and complement each other's weaknesses. No one can monopolize this process, and its development is not indefinite. The Chinese must make their own contributions to this process.The Chinese spirit has injected new elements into the concept of "democracy": democracy cannot be limited to voting, democracy must be implemented in good political governance, governance must be "people-oriented", and it must be efficient and diligent.The Chinese spirit has also injected new content into the concept of "human rights".

Human rights should be based on human nature, and human rights can complement each other and complement each other with a sense of responsibility to put others before oneself.For those who only know how to interpret human rights from the perspective of individual freedom, this is a new realm. At 21:28 pm on May 19, 2008, 1.3 billion Chinese mourned for the victims of the earthquake.But after the mourning in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the people gathered in the square were reluctant to leave. With tears in their eyes, they shouted loudly, "Wenchuan, hold on, Sichuan, hold on, China, come on!" Seeing this scene on the Internet, my heart was shocked.This kind of scene will not appear in any other country. This is the unique Chinese spirit, because only we have the inheritance of "family affairs, state affairs, world affairs, and care about everything"; Only we have the tragic and heroic feeling of falling into the trough due to internal and external troubles after leading the world for thousands of years; only we have the great ambition of re-emerging through reform and opening up and realizing the rejuvenation of China. In the end, it is all reflected in the cry of "China, come on!" This sentence comes from the hearts of the Chinese people.

This unique Chinese spirit has touched the world. Spain's "Le Monde" said: "The indomitable spirit of these volunteers, soldiers and rescuers has saved this country from the ruins time and time again, which has suffered countless foreign invasions and various disasters." After 30 years of great changes, its people "walk faster, work harder, and see farther than others." The American media also expressed emotion: "China, which stood up from the ruins of the magnitude 8 earthquake, is so Surprisingly modern, flexible, and open." RIA Novosti also commented: "We know that a country whose prime minister flies to the disaster area within two hours, a country that can dispatch more than 100,000 rescuers, a company and private A country with tens of billions in donations, a country with traffic jams caused by competing blood donations and voluntary rescue of the wounded, will never be defeated.” The earthquake let the whole world see a benevolent China, a highly competitive China, an indestructible China.

After the earthquake in August 2008, with the slow unfolding of a "Chinese scroll", the Olympic Games, which attracted worldwide attention, opened in Beijing.The impressive achievements of the Chinese Olympic team, the patriotic enthusiasm of the Chinese people and the broad mind of "All brothers in the world" have once again demonstrated this precious Chinese spirit. "It takes time to really know China and understand the Chinese people. It took me decades to truly understand and feel the greatness of this country, the tenacity and kindness of this nation." IOC Lifetime Honorary President Sa With these words, Ma Lanqi expressed a citizen of the world's respect for the spirit of China.

The Chinese people have great aspirations. We still have a long way to go. We have to learn from the strengths of other countries with an open mind. We will encounter various challenges, siege, and even crises on the way to rise, but as long as we persevere With the Chinese spirit, we can overcome all kinds of difficulties and obstacles, and finally realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.