「從一而終」可能代表忠貞或堅毅，但如果是個有爭議的「一」，它也可能代表無知或瘋狂。我們不妨偶爾卸下自己既定的思想模式，讓它曬曬太陽﹔或者摘下那付有色眼鏡，讓眼珠直接接觸到世界萬相。或者參考、參考別人的看法，調整或校正(calibrate)一下自己的思路和價值觀。

祖國和自由、民主一樣，在某個層面或層次，它們代表個人的信念、定位、或認同。這是個人的選擇，我們都應該尊重，不宜嘻皮笑臉以對。50步不可笑百步，古有明訓。同理，捧著鍍金神主牌者，又豈可譏笑緊抓著木刻神主牌的人？此之謂「看見别人眼中的刺，而看不見自己眼中樑木。」

以下摘錄幾段David Shambaugh在China at 60: The Road to Prosperity一文中的片斷(約全文的1/4)。真正關切「中國」和「中國人」的人，而不是以吉普賽人為典範的「華人」，不妨聽聽外國人的意見，和他所列舉的一些現實。千萬不要像小朋友一樣，摀起耳朵，唸唸有詞的說：「不聽！不聽！黃狗唸經。」

此外，中國有兩到四千年的歷史，最長的政府據說有八百年。政府和朝代不是國家，國歌、國旗、甚至國號也不是國家。但它們都有一定的象徵作用或功能。說穿了，仍然是一個信念、定位、或認同的需要和議題。在文字上過招並無意義。文字不是生活，只是生活的輔助工具。

最後，討論政策現實必須以歷史、文化、社會，以及它們對(不同)個人所造成的感情和感受為基礎。否則只是發洩、意識型態鬥爭、或殺時間，有點像一人麻將。

China at 60: The Road to Prosperity

David Shambaugh, 09/28/09

As the People's Republic of China commemorates its 60th anniversary, it seemingly has much to celebrate. China is the world's most populous and industrious nation, is the world's third largest economy and trading nation, has become a global innovator in science and technology, and is building a world-class university system. It has an increasingly modern military and commands diplomatic respect. It is at peace with its neighbors and all major powers. Its hybrid model of quasi-state capitalism and semidemocratic authoritarianism -- sometimes dubbed the "Beijing Consensus" -- has attracted attention across the developing world.

Less visible is the fact that China is the first major economy to recover from the global recession and, indeed, is leading the world out of it. (Read "Mission Accomplished. Now What?")

Three decades later, the world witnesses the extraordinary results. China is now the world's third largest economy, after the U.S. and Japan, and recently surpassed Germany as the largest exporting nation. Its GNP is on course to overtake Japan's by 2010 and perhaps that of the U.S. by 2020. (Read "Why the China-U.S. Trade Dispute Is Heating Up.")

Much of this dynamic growth has been export-driven, benefiting the low- and medium-technology sectors of the economy. But China is beginning to move up the technological ladder and is becoming more innovative in certain sectors such as electronics and biotechnology. The country has become a manufacturing superpower and the workshop of the world, producing two-thirds of all photocopiers, microwaves and shoes; 60% of cell phones; 55% of DVDs; over half of all digital cameras; 30% of personal computers; and 75% of children's toys, plus a wide variety of other goods.

As a result of its economic boom, China has amassed a staggering $2 trillion in foreign exchange -- the largest reserves in the world -- and is beginning to invest significant amounts abroad. Today, 37 Chinese multinational corporations rank among FORTUNE's top 500 global companies, up from just six a decade ago, while 450 out of the FORTUNE 500 American companies have production lines and a business presence in China. China has become the world's largest recipient of foreign direct investment.

Mao spent his lifetime trying to transform Chinese society in his utopian, socialist and revolutionary vision. He tried to create a "new socialist man" and an equitable society. His regime succeeded in providing the world's largest population with food to eat, housing and basic services. Social vices were eliminated, literacy was expanded, life expectancy increased and infant mortality decreased. These were no small achievements. But Mao's efforts to impose socialism had a deadening effect on urban and rural society alike, as political movements repeatedly harassed different groups of people.

By the time Deng and his compatriots came to power in 1978, China was traumatized, tired and alienated by 30 years of Maoist experiments and totalitarian controls. Deng's wisdom was to recognize that the state needed to retreat from society and the economy if the creative and entrepreneurial spirits of ordinary Chinese were to be unleashed.

Three decades later, Chinese society has fully blossomed. Chinese today experience a wide variety of personal freedoms in daily life that they and their ancestors had never known. Chinese state and society have also reconnected with the past, emphasizing Confucian and Buddhist values. More than 200 million people have been lifted out of poverty and the members of a growing middle class with disposable income travel abroad, invest in the stock market, dine out and decorate their stylish apartments with furniture purchased from stores like Ikea. Access to education has become far more widespread. Some 21 million students attend university today, while an estimated 300,000 study abroad every year. Approximately 206 million Chinese children attend primary and secondary schools. Basic literacy is almost universal in China today, while it was roughly 20% in 1949. Still, China remains a poor country by global standards: some 207 million people still live below World Bank poverty levels on less than $1.25 per day.

Chinese intellectual life has also improved, although over time this remains one of the real dark spots of Chinese communist rule. For six decades intellectuals have been persecuted, harassed and forced to conform and create within various boundaries set by the state. They continually probe the boundaries -- until the state pushes back. Despite continuing controls, public and private discourse in China has never been so free. The blogosphere and Internet are alive with unbridled discussion -- unless and until it crosses the state censor's invisible hand. (Read "Avoiding Censors, Chinese Authors Go Online.")

While China has made much progress, it still has many blemishes.

l  Treatment of ethnic minorities -- particularly Tibetans and Uighurs -- is the Achilles' heel of the regime, as violent riots last year and in recent months have clearly demonstrated.

l  Crime and corruption remain serious problems, while cities struggle to provide basic services to the huge "floating population" of 100 million or so migrants. 

l  Income disparities (as measured by the Gini coefficient) are now approaching the highest in the world. China has again become a stratified society -- just what Mao sought to eliminate.

Still, given the unprecedented scale and nature of China's socioeconomic change over the past 30 years, the country's relative stability is commendable.

But while much of the structure and essential nature of the system remains largely the same, the substance and process of politics has changed quite a lot. The leadership and the 76 million party members are better educated and their recruitment and promotion is much more meritocratic. Competence is now rewarded. In the past, there existed only two exit paths from officialdom: purges and death. Now mandatory retirement is firmly implemented. Instead of being a totalitarian party dominated by a single leader, the CCP today is an authoritarian party with a collective leadership. …Marxist-Leninist ideology plays little, if any, role in their decision-making.

But, going forward, the major challenge to the Party will likely be its ability to deliver adequate "public goods" to the population: health care, education, environmental protection and other social services. Providing stability and ever increasing personal wealth will not be enough to guarantee the Party indefinite legitimacy -- it must continuously improve the quality of life of its citizens. This is China's new revolution: the revolution of rising expectations.

《時代周刊》，http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1924366,00.html

Shambaugh is professor and director of the China Policy Program at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and currently a visiting scholar at the China Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. His latest book is China's Communist Party: Atrophy and Adaptation