Comrade Capitalists

January 31, 2006; WSJ, Page A14

Though Mao Tse-tung's portrait still hangs in Tiananmen Square, a recent poll shows that the Chinese are crazier about capitalism than are Americans. In fact, they top the world-wide rankings in their zeal for free markets. No wonder Mao isn't smiling.

In a poll conducted for the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes between June and August last year, fully 74% of Chinese citizens said they agreed with the statement "the free enterprise system and free market economy is the best system on which to base the future of the world." The Philippines, at 73%, and the U.S., at 71%, were second and third. The poll, which surveyed 20,791 people in 20 countries, seems like a pretty good snapshot of current sentiment, as such things go.

Remarkable, isn't it, that residents of the Middle Kingdom have maintained their appreciation of the benefits of free enterprise through six decades of oppression and economic backwardness imposed by their Communist cadres? Then again, for a culture in which common New Year's greetings include "I wish you happiness and many riches" and "may you make great profits," should we be surprised? Most Hong Kong residents are spending the current Chinese New Year holiday politely distributing packets of crisp new cash to friends and family. They have to earn this gift cash somehow.

Less encouraging in the Maryland survey was the response of Europeans, who could use a dollop of capitalism given the sclerotic state of their older economies. Fully half of the French disagreed that capitalism is the best way forward. Italians and Spaniards were more supportive of Adam Smith's ideals, with 59% and 63%, respectively, voting for free markets.

The survey contained other telling nuggets, such as Russia and Brazil's irrational distrust of large companies. Perhaps big corporations remind them too much of their countries' bureaucratic workings. Strong support for government regulation of the environment shows as well that there's a lot of education still to be done in explaining to citizens why free-market countries also have the cleanest environments.

Mao would probably turn over in his glass case if he realized that the Chinese have rejected his teachings. But the harsh consequences those teachings imposed on his countrymen have been an education like no other. Nothing creates eager young capitalists quite like living under Communism.