Empires, Old and New West, Old and New China
Beijing is trying to rethink the whole process of modernization, which we traditionally view as a highly complex historical process, as a rational formula that can be applied to present-day China. It copies some easy American and Western theories that ‘democracy’ can be standardized, reproduced, and exported worldwide, regardless of the local history and environment. The theories easily justify present results and are oblivious to historical processes.
In many ways, they are mirror images, possibly equally deceiving. From the American point of view, it answers the necessity to model the whole world according to its political and cultural standards. From China’s viewpoint, it wants to answer the fundamental question: how can China’s model fit into a modern system? The question is different from Russia, which offers a neo-czarist answer against modernity; China has something different.
Both models are simplifications that can be useful, but only as long as they are used with great caution. The historical evolution and background weigh immensely on whatever political model is used. What is necessary, politically and culturally, is an effort at mutual understanding. Here is a collection of essays written in the past months, an attempt at it.
Here is the list of the seven essays used here, as seven chapters of this excursion.
