A Day in The Life . . . . . . Of China: Free to Fly Inside the Cage

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But for all its progress, Zouping represents what can be called an altered sequence of development. Like much of the rest of the country, Zouping is experiencing the telecommunications and electronics revolution before agricultural mechanization. It is possible to stand in a field in Zouping and watch wheat harvested exactly as it was 2,000 years ago, by sickle, and then to look up and see the giant satellite dish that links the town with Beijing's Central Television -- as incongruous a sight as that of Chinese businessmen furiously pedaling their bikes through the capital as they speak on cellular phones.

In the midst of Zouping is a village of 1,100 where Wu Baohua, 57, has been Communist Party secretary for 25 years. Wu is soft-spoken and polite, and his face expresses a sanguine dignity without a trace of self-importance. Then there are his teeth, big strong Jimmy Carter teeth. Separately, each one could win a prize. Taken together, the effect is electric. You could read fine print at the bottom of a well by his grin.

Unlike Guangdong, where Deng's injunction to "seek truth from facts" has led provincial officials to cite "unique local conditions" as a way of drifting as far from Communism as Beijing can tolerate, Wu's village represents the opposite tendency. In many ways it is still a collectivist town. The village employs doctors and covers all medical costs -- a practice $ no longer common in China, where many must pay for health care out of their own pockets. Land is privately owned, but much of its cultivation is accomplished by group effort.

The neighborhood committees that exist almost everywhere in China -- watchdog groups that keep an eye on everyone and everything -- are unnecessary in Wu's village. In tone and in fact, he controls almost every aspect of village life -- and the villagers have prospered thanks to his wisdom. When income from the local ice-cream factory fell short of projections, Wu converted the plant to a successful cotton-fabric operation in six months. When this summer's drought threatened to devastate the village's wheat and vegetable crops, Wu proposed that water from the Yellow River -- unused previously because it was so muddy -- be tapped immediately. Within 36 hours, 4,000 Chinese, including Wu, were digging a new irrigation ditch two miles long. The entire job was completed in twelve hours.

On the wall of one of the newest buildings in Wu's village is a saying widely heard during the Cultural Revolution two decades ago: PREPARE FOR WAR, PREPARE FOR NATURAL DISASTERS, SERVE THE PEOPLE. Wu makes no apologies. "Of course I know the slogan's origins," he says. "But there is nothing wrong with those words. We should use more of what Mao taught. His themes were self- reliance and sacrifice. I say to our leaders, more of that and less riding around in fancy cars.

"What we have today is a lot of talk about ending corruption and nepotism," Wu continues. "Just like we've heard before. But unless we finally get serious about such things, we will never build our New China. We will watch Chinese on the outside rise in even white societies because of their industry and intellect. We will never catch up."