By Yusuke Yamada

Now, our neighboring country, China is going in a new a new direction. One example is that many young men are going in new and different directions freely. They cherish their own sense of values, and live to seek a life without restrictions. One of them quit high school and wrote a best-selling novel, one became a race car driver, and one runs a computer software company. Few people could be so free just ten years ago.

"People born in the 1970s are concerned about how to make money, how to enjoy life," said Time in February. "But people born in the 1980s are worried about self-expression, how to choose a path that fits one's own individual identity." Recent economical development of China is transforming with this backdrop.

Due to its abundant labor force, China has recently expanded its financial power at a rapid pace. According to "China Statistical Yearbook" published by National Bureau of Statistics of China, China's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 400 billion yuan in 1980, but in the 1990s it suddenly leapt to 9 trillion yuan, about twenty times as much as the 1980s. After that it continued to increase, reaching 10 trillion yuan in 2003. Since the Tiananmen Square Incident, such economical development has turned China into a capitalist country from a communist one. Now China is becoming rich economically and talented people can pursue the Chinese Dream because young Chinese seem to have more spare time and money.

But not all parts of China are rich. In China, the rate of income growth is different between people in upper and lower income brackets. So the wealth gap between cities and the countryside is about 3.15 times different. Year by year the difference is expanding. According to "The Information Handbook" published by Mitsubishi Research Institute, GDP per person in western China (Guizhou and Sichuan) is about one-sixth that of Beijing and about one-fiftieth that of Hong Kong. For these reasons the liberal trend doesn't seem to spread out to all of China. Actually, some people criticized the new young generation before, but now they are accepted in the cities.

The rate of diffusion of the Internet seems to be related to the liberalization of China. Surprisingly, at present that rate is second in the world after the U.S. On the 10th Five-Month Plan begun in 2001, about one thousand information technology companies were established in Beijing in only one year. The data of the joint-stock corporation Searchina shows that the number of Internet connections in China went from just over 10 million to over 16 million, and the number of users reached 45.8 million from 26.5 million in 2002. Many people are now able to get various information from the outside through the Internet. More people are turning their eyes to the outside world.

China continues to develop in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. And people who wish for freedom will be increasing more and more. However, as China changes into a capitalist economy, there are some problems of disparity between rich and poor, and an increase in crime. As the difference between rich and poor widens, crime will also increase. Some of the young men break laws and ignore the police, so it is important how China deals with them. If China denies basic freedoms to its young people they will become dissatisfied, and the government's control of information will be difficult because of the diffusion of the Internet. China will need to carefully handle the bad aspects of such developments. It is hoped that China will see the future through new eyes lest China become a capitalist society that suffers in equality between the wealthy and poor, with an increase in crime like Japan and the West.