Outside View

Reasons to wonder at China's achievements

The sight of thousands of Chinese people standing in silence to watch the lowering of their national flag in Tian'anmen Square moved her to tears, Christina Patterson wrote in her column for The Independent.

"In this vast space, where Chairman Mao Zedong held rallies and where people come to do tai chi and fly kites, tourists, nearly all Chinese, took photos of each other and lined up to watch young soldiers with wasp waists march around a flagpole and take a flag away. Many were smiling. If they weren't on holiday, they were out for an evening stroll. And watching them, and watching them watch me, I saw something I'd rarely seen in my life - a relaxed expression of national pride," Patterson wrote.