The 500,000 people who thronged the vast plaza yesterday to cheer their ``New'' China's 50th anniversary stood under Mao Zedong's huge portrait, near the imperial Forbidden City, close to one of Asia's most modern shopping and business centres. They walked on flagstones where democracy activists shed blood a decade ago.

China has come so far in the past half-century that it is scarcely recognizable.

Under Mao, the Communists unified a nation with a population that now stands at 1.2 billion and an economy that ranks as the world's seventh largest.

Under Deng Xiaoping, they eased harsh political controls and embraced basic capitalism in a rush. Personal income has risen seven-fold in recent years.

But China's advances have come amid suffering on a scale that Canadians can scarcely comprehend. Mass-scale crimes (the Communists prefer to call them ``mistakes'') such as the Great Leaps Forward and the Cultural Revolution claimed 30 million lives and shattered the intelligentsia. China remains deeply scarred by these descents into collective folly.

The Chinese people today are freer, wealthier and happier than ever before. But the country as a whole is still poor and developing, with a per capita income of under $600 U.S.

China is ``open for business,'' as the Communists never tire of saying. Cell phones, computers, and microwave ovens are taken for granted in the big cities But the countryside lags far behind.

People are beginning to speak their minds and to elect local officials. In these two changes lie China's future greatness.

The current leader, President Jiang Zemin, understands this. More importantly, so do China's younger leaders.

If China is not hobbled by some backward fit of Communist repression, or by social unrest caused by its breakneck development, the next 50 years look bright.

This is something that Canadians can celebrate.

As many as 1.5 million of us have roots in China. We differ from those, including some Americans, who seek to demonize China as the next great enemy.

Chinese officials report that 4,000 joint Canada-China ventures have been set up, with more than $4 billion in investment. Beyond that, we do $10 billion worth of trade.

Like Jiang and Deng, we know that China needs another ``50 years of peace'' to play catch-up with the most-developed nations. It must avoid needless friction with the U.S. and its Asian neighbours, particularly Taiwan. And it must open its economy to the rest of the world.

But Canadians do not believe that a country cannot reach its full potential by denying its citizens the right to choose those who will administer the government. Nor can a country be great if it fears its people, jailing those who dare to lobby for systemic change.

Canadians cannot accept the Communist claim that the 60-million member party, which operates like a self-perpetuating oligarchy, must continue to monopolize political power. That is not a ``people's dictatorship.'' It is dictatorship by the few, for the few.

China must democratize, gradual though that process will be.

These are messages that Canadian politicians, business people and tourists can usefully carry to China, as our contacts flourish.

The Chinese people, from top Communist cadres on down, should know that we rejoice in China's hard-won 50-year success, and that we wish it a peaceful, prosperous, democratic future.