The Chinese Miracle, Revisited | The Vineyard of the Saker

Western exceptionalists may continue to throw a fit 24/7 ad infinitum: that will not change the course of history.

By Pepe Escobar with permission and widely distributed

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) centennial takes place this week at the heart of an incandescent geopolitical equation.

China, the emerging superpower, is back to the global prominence it enjoyed throughout centuries of recorded history, while the declining Hegemon is paralyzed by the “existential challenge” posed to its fleeting, unilateral dominance.

A mindset of full spectrum confrontation already sketched in the 2017 U.S. National Security Review is sliding fast into fear, loathing and relentless Sinophobia.

Add to it the Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership graphically exposing the ultimate Mackinderian nightmare of Anglo-American elites jaded by “ruling the world” – for only two centuries at best.

The Little Helmsman Deng Xiaoping may have coined the ultimate formula for what many in the West defined as the Chinese miracle:

“To seek truth from facts, not from dogmas, whether from East or West”.

So this was never about divine intervention, but planning, hard work, and learning by trial and error.

The recent session of the National People’s Congress provides a stark example. Not only it approved a new Five-Year Plan, but in fact a full road map for China’s development up to 2035: three plans in one.

What the whole world saw, in practice, was the manifest efficiency of the Chinese governance system, capable of designing and implementing extremely complex geoeconomic strategies after plenty of local and regional debate on a vast range of policy initiatives.

Compare it to the endless bickering and gridlock in Western liberal democracies, which are incapable of planning for the next quarter, not to mention fifteen years.

The best and the brightest in China actually do their Deng; they couldn’t care less about the politicizing of governance systems. What matters is what they define as a very effective system to make SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) development plans, and put them in practice.

The 85% popular vote

At the start of 2021, before the onset of the Year of the Metal Ox, President Xi Jinping emphasized that “favorable social conditions” should be in place for the CCP centennial celebrations.

Oblivious to waves of demonization coming from the West, for Chinese public opinion what matters is whether the CCP delivered. And deliver it did (over 85% popular approval). China controlled Covid-19 in record time; economic growth is back; poverty alleviation was achieved; and the civilization-state became a “moderately prosperous society” – right on schedule for the CCP centennial.

Since 1949, the size of the Chinese economy soared by a whopping 189 times. Over the past two decades, China’s GDP grew 11-fold. Since 2010, it more than doubled, from $6 trillion to $15 trillion, and now accounts for 17% of global economic output.

No wonder Western grumbling is irrelevant. Shanghai Capital investment boss Eric Li succinctly describes the governance gap; in the U.S., government changes but not policy. In China, government doesn’t change; policy does.

This is the background for the next development stage – where the CCP will in fact double down on its unique hybrid model of “socialism with Chinese characteristics”.

The key point is that the Chinese leadership, via non-stop policy adjustments (trial and error, always) has evolved a model of “peaceful rise” – their own terminology – that essentially respects China’s immense historical and cultural experiences.

In this case, Chinese exceptionalism means respecting Confucianism – which privileges harmony and abhors conflict – as well as Daoism – which privileges balance – over the boisterous, warring, hegemonic Western model.

This is reflected in major policy adjustments such as the new “dual circulation” drive, which places greater emphasis on the domestic market compared to China as the “factory of the world”.

Past and future are totally intertwined in China; what was done in previous dynasties echoes in the future. The best contemporary example is the New Silk Roads, or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – the overarching Chinese foreign policy concept for the foreseeable future.

As detailed by Renmin University Professor Wang Yiwei, BRI is about to reshape geopolitics, “bringing Eurasia back to its historical place at the center of human civilization.” Wang has shown how “the two great civilizations of the East and the West were linked until the rise of the Ottoman Empire cut off the Ancient Silk Road”.

Europe moving seaward led to “globalization through colonization”; the decline of the Silk Road; the world’s center shifting to the West; the rise of the U.S.; and the decline of Europe. Now, Wang argues, “Europe is faced with a historic opportunity to return to the world center through the revival of Eurasia.”

And that’s exactly what the Hegemon will go no holds barred to prevent.

Zhu and Xi

It’s fair to argue that Xi’s historical counterpart is the Hongwu emperor Zhu, the founder of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). The emperor was keen to present his dynasty as a Chinese renewal after Mongol domination via the Yuan dynasty.

Xi frames it as “Chinese rejuvenation”: “China used to be a world economic power. However, it missed its chance in the wake of the Industrial Revolution and the consequent dramatic changes, and was thus left behind and suffered humiliation under foreign invasion …we must not let this tragic history repeat itself.”

The difference is that 21^st century China under Xi will not retreat inward as it did under the Ming. The parallel for the near future would rather be with the Tang dynasty (618-907), which privileged trade and interactions with the world at large.

To comment on the torrent of Western misinterpretations of China is a waste of time. For the Chinese, the overwhelming majority of Asia, and for the Global South, much more relevant is to register how the American imperial narrative – “we are the liberators of Asia-Pacific” – has now been totally debunked.

In fact Chairman Mao may end up having the last laugh. As he wrote in 1957, “if the imperialists insist on launching a third world war, it is certain that several hundred million more will turn to socialism, and then there will not be much room left on earth for the imperialists; it is also likely that the whole structure of imperialism will utterly collapse.”

Martin Jacques, one of the very few Westerners who actually studied China in depth, correctly pointed out how “China has enjoyed five separate periods when it has enjoyed a position of pre-eminence – or shared pre-eminence – in the world: part of the Han, the Tang, arguably the Song, the early Ming, and the early Qing.”

So China, historically, does represent continuous renewal and “rejuvenation” (Xi). We’re right in the middle of another one of these phases – now conducted by a CCP dynasty that, incidentally, does not believe in miracles, but in hardcore planning. Western exceptionalists may continue to throw a fit 24/7 ad infinitum: that will not change the course of history.

fred123 on July 01, 2021 · at 11:08 am EST/EDT

Thank you, zhuge liang21 for your inside perspecitves.

I don’t wish to argue with these points specifically — you are entitled to your opinions. However, I can make some comments from a Anglosaxon/Celt (Australian) male of senior years who has done a small amount of research into Chinese history since an elective in the 1970’s undergraduate degree.

I do not present them as ‘facts’ but rather as my own opinions and experiences in response to your claims:

1. Your “The reason we don’t care” (a & b) conveys very little information other than that you appear as another angry subaltern perpsective trying to find your identity and agency in the modern/postmodern/structural world. There are any number of coconuts and bananas (white on the inside) running around attacking the “white” “other” by way of envy as if there was some informational value in angry younger brother claims against the older.

2. Of course your reflective complaints about “1840, 1859, 1910, and 1949” are valid in retrospect. As, I am sure, are your (collective) complaints about the Mongol invasions that occured in your deep past, in spite of the Great Walls erected to keep out the northern barbarians, and the disputes with the Koreans, and dealing with the equally exclusionary Japanese rise during the 19th and 20th centuries based on western technology and an ’emporer’ who rose the sun each morning by decree.

3. The problem is, in literature, social media, and person-to-person interactions with Yue Chinese domain, with its superior 9-tone Cantonese compared to the dominant Han in the north of China with their limited 5-tone dialects, the han are seen as cultural invaders and not ‘real’ Chinese. There is not one China, but rather, like Europe and India, ther are many (four at least). Further south in Vietnam they basically hate the lot of you for the 1,000 years of empire domination. Feel free to verify my comment — I suggest a visit to certain islands off the coats of Hai Phong where (although they liked my tourism visit c. 2013) would, as was explained to me over a dinner with a upper class landed individual, be quite happy to cut your Chinese throats from ear to ear on a moonless night anytime you wish to return. So, you see, what your presenting here just confirms and reinforces where you are coming from in your new found ‘power’ and sense of confidence expressed here. For many in South east Asia — you are the ‘whitey’!

4. It is much the same tensions in subaltern ‘privilaged’ India with its rigid caste system othering the local indiginous tribes. There is nothing ‘white’ about that pre-European history of invasion or emerging extant postcolonial conditionality. Welcome to the real world beyond your inward parochial reflexions. Now what are you going to do with this new modern privilage and responsibility? That is what the extant ‘club’ wants to know. Many of the older cohort can remember the cultural revolution and Mao’s little red book and the cult purges. We also remember Nixon & Co opening the door to China (for their own nefarious aims of course) — but without that your country would likely still be only a few steps ahead of North Korea in advancement.

5. My critique is that I (and many others I am sure) are waiting for something new to emerge in the world of affairs. This angry adolecent outburst claiming justification from past events means very little in this pragmatic context. It is accepted as a necessary decompression step — but the response is a big yawn on the epitemological front. Any group with industry and focus (and borrowed technology — as the Europeans did with silk, fine china, paper and gunpower) can make a big splash at the shallow end of the pool. But where is the science? Sure, I like the idea of Feng Shi, and it may even inform architercute and aesthetics, but it does not get people to the Moon or Mars. And magical thinking from New Guinea to Beijing is of the same level when comes to eating the wildlife into extinction because of some 101-level placebo principle that helps you get your collective Yang up!

6. I’ve also met a number of upper level Pakistani people (and others of the same view) — and they have very little good to say about their experiences with the Chinese projects in their domains. Nothing ‘white’ there. I cannot say what their specific complaints were. Nor how valid they were, but the Vietnamese attitude was not far off. Perhaps that has something to do with your cultural closed-ness, Triad gangs, and general implicit empire arrogance. Only 80 years ago Japan was welcomed as liberators throughout SE Asia down to Indonesia — until after a few years they were detested more so than the Europeans. China risks repeating this error, imo.

7. “When the Chinese look to the past, they look for instructions for the present and future,…” — indeed, a focus on a close governance-cultural fit is the key. As the Russians are demonstrating, their post-feudal model (interupted by communism) requires a Czar like figure to tap and focus the organic energies of the people. And for many of us, it is a joy to see people (humans!) get their collective acts together and get on with building their futures and good sustainable lives. Go for it! The trick is to get the requisite variety (voice diversity) into the policy process. The Communist party process of 80-million members has that bottom-up process within it. Managing a population of 1.2billion with these policies is simply a scale problem that does not need “American” democracy. And that is their complaint. However, our/our collective human macrohistory points to never ending dynastic cycles. And the non-Chinese today want to know the obvious question: what is in it for us, and our kids and grandkids?

8. I’ll close with a general observation about your claims of ‘virtuous inward focus’ and family etc. Chinese collectively are known here as the “Jews of Asia”. Why is this so? I assume because because it has some truth to it (from an outsiders perspective). Like the Hindu that excludes all others as barbarians and relegates them (us) to the parts of their body-based cultural models that correspond with “untouchable” (think of your times in the toilet and what you wipe with your left hand!), there are at least two levels of othering. One is just the arrogance and hubris of empire and upper elite classes of all colours that has no specific face or age — power just corrupts. The other is deeper and more pernicious and pathological. Let’s take the ex-slave-class Jews of the Middle east (not so much the latter Ashkenazi converts) as an example.

9. What you call “European/White” etc is actually a shallow culture because the dominant Enlighenment rationality excluded other more indigneous traditions. [For example, look at the works of Santos, B. (2014) 2016. Epistemologies of the South. Justice against Epistemicide. New York: Routledge.] The deeper malaise is the ‘exceptionalism’ implied in the Jewish underpinnings of this so called Christian civilization. These traumatised slave-class sandwiched between the Hittite-Egyptian-Persian civilizations developed a matrilineal ‘excluded-god’ model with an 8-day male genitial mutilation identity ritual, based on superstition and the alternative “Lilith” (rather than Eve) myth, to lock it in. They, the sub-tibes of Judah and Benjamin, were not exactly seen as “in the house” of Israel (more on the veranda) — and their gripe is the rest of the Israelites basically intermarried and mingled with the greater populations — i.e., they are the Middle-east today being persecuted by the latest cult crusades by ‘European’ Jews. And their food prohibitions are a key feature.

10. So, you see, a love of eating pigs is not so easy to reconcile with Semetic based cultures (or vegetarians).
However, my comment is only to point to a deeper cause of exclusion based on cultural customs that are basically incommensurable. That should be recognised (as it was in the founding of Islam) and dealt with by treaty etc. Of course, that is not possible at the moment with the “non agreement capable” USA empire. But that is not a ‘white’ thing. This Anglo-American cult driven enterprise (extending on from the East India Company etc) is now basically overrun by criminals — your pirate types. Always there (as in China and Russia) but never as dominant, and in the control rooms of state, as they are now. Focus on this aspect would serve China’s (and Russia’s) foriegn agenda better than clumsy postmodern/structural ‘woke’ attacks on all inclusive ‘whites’. None of us are white except in teeth and bones (and maybe hair). There is great diversity and every one has family. We just see it as an evolutionary advance to have the feedoms of individuality beyond this tribal family business. Jung called it individuation. Agreed, this hard won achievement has problems at scale and is now very much under attack from within. Hopefully for a positive transformation — not retrograde.

Look to the ‘ex’ British colony called Singapore — that department store with an airport run by the Lee family gang manned by machine gun carrying officials. Yes, they have elections to qualify for teh WTO club etc. However, the controlled ‘opposition’ never wins (ever) and all citizens on that plantation are prohibited (on death penalty) from any prohibitied drug taking anywhere on the planet. Legally they can never leave the plantation. That sort of ‘family’ experience, like the Italian Mafia, is NOT the family experience that privilaged — “that is so last 3 centuries ago!” — whitey have any interest in falling back into.

[Singapore’s People’s Action Party (PAP) were elected to power in 1959 with 43 out of the 51 seats in the Assembly. Lee Kuan Yew became the first Prime Minister and the PAP remained in power without discontinuity since then with never less than 95% of the parliamentary seats. In 2007, Canadian lawyers concluded that a “number of factors amply demonstrate that Singapore is not governed by the rule of law” (Bryan et al. 2007, 21). In respect to sovereign and disciplinary power, 23 prisoners have been executed in Singapore for drug offences Under Section 17 of the Misuse of Drugs Act (2008) since 2010 – only five have been executed for other offences. In contrast to relatively relaxed legislation in Europe and North America/Canada for soft drugs, Singapore’s Section 31 permits enforced urinalysis and section 8A “prohibits any citizen or permanent resident of Singapore to use any prohibited drug outside of the country, and if found guilty to be punished as if they committed that act within the country” https://www.sg-visit.com/controlled-of-drug/ ]

So, I hope my response helps with your understanding of the other side of the equation. Everyone loves the gadgets, the food is fantastic, the music is a bit alien to European ears, and the mystercism is fine and good. But that does not automatically translate into an acceptance of an introverted, communist cult-based worldview that can not easily be generalised to the wider world. Solve that complex issue and you have a great future up in first-world class like the rest.

89 Comments

Eyes Wide Open on June 30, 2021 · at 5:32 pm EST/EDT

Why does anyone anymore say China has the world’s second largest economy? Perhaps only by measure of gossamer financial aggregates that can evaporate in a New York minute. Look at the “Real Economy” , the economy that utilizes “natural resources at transforms them into products and process that people need for a decent life.
Steel – China – over one billion toons per year, US – 70 millions in a good year
Concrete – China – over 2.5 billion tons per year – US about 80 million
Agriculture – China is about 4X US production
Automobiles – China – 26 million per year – US 10 – 11 million in a up year
Every consumer product – not even close
Ship Building – China 60% of world capacity, US 4% – do not get into a naval shipbuilding race Uncle Sam
Construction: 10X US, that’s where that 12X steel and 30X concrete go.
The list goes on. Only in civil aircraft does the US hold a significant edge, but that too will disappear in 10 years,
Bottom line – the Real Chinese Economy is likely 3-4X bigger than the Rea US Economy. Draw what conclusions and predictions you will.
- convoy on June 30, 2021 · at 7:03 pm EST/EDT
  
  Production Economy VS Speculation “Economy”!
  Facebook is a trillion dollar company and it does not produce a damn thing.
  Amazon is THE middle man control pretty much all medium, small manufacturers.
  Twatsla is “bigger” than Toyota!!!
  - Arshan on June 30, 2021 · at 7:56 pm EST/EDT
    
    You mean TWASTIKA?
    - joey_n on July 01, 2021 · at 4:25 am EST/EDT
      
      I think by ‘Twatsla’ he/she meant Tesla.
      - Doug Ryler on July 01, 2021 · at 9:04 am EST/EDT
        
        What everyone seems to forget here is that the American miracle occurred first, and China piggybacked on it. Still, I’m not trying to take anything away from China, what they have done is outstanding.
        
        Their luck is that they don’t have an APARTHEID Israhell and its elite in the US sucking it dry.
        
        America’s tumble has been precipitated by its obsession with the needs of the racist Jewish state to reconfigure the Middle East to benefit the Apartheid country.
        
        In the process, the US got blindsided and bankrupt while China and Russia became powerhouses themselves, ready to knock the US Empire off its perch.
        
        Such happenstance is truly God’s doing to impede the Evil American Empire, as wagged by the Evil State of Israel, to become much worse than it already has.
        
        http://biblicisminstitute.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/israel-the-scourge-of-empires/
        
        amarynth on July 01, 2021 · at 9:35 am EST/EDT
        
        “What everyone seems to forget here is that the American miracle occurred first, and China piggybacked on it.”
        
        We need to keep in view that the supposed American Miracle was based on the plunder of others. So far, China is rising by her own merit, and not by the plunder route.
        
        Doug Ryler on July 01, 2021 · at 9:50 am EST/EDT
        
        Sure, the US plundered indigenous lands and committed massacres throughout the world.
        
        But the industrial and technical and digital revolutions that occurred in the US and impacted the world have nothing to do with those crimes. The Chinese simply used those as their own foundation, then built on them.
        
        amarynth on July 01, 2021 · at 10:36 am EST/EDT
        
        Doug, I don’t know what your experience is, but mine comes from working with Chinese people on two massive IT projects. They are sharp as tacks, I knew my business, they knew their business, we integrated the two conceptually and then we sketched the design for one that suited them. So, I had to learn their concepts and they had to learn mine. They treated me with the greatest respect and we walked away as equals. They never stopped working and I needed a few days off afterward.
        
        These folks will learn from anyone, and then they go and build and develop their own. Take a look at what they just did after Google withdrew/banned their use of Android. If you page through the China Sitreps, you will find it there. It is decisively not foundational on US technology. These engineers are scaling new heights.
        
        Look at their space program. They were not even allowed on the current space station. Decidedly not modeled on old US technology. We have to see these people for what they are, and not in comparison with the US.
        
        Doug Ryler on July 01, 2021 · at 10:45 am EST/EDT
        
        I agree with you.
        
        Still, you refuse to acknowledge what Americans (not the USG) have contributed, and that is still the foundation upon which everything else has been built on and improved on, Chinese or otherwise.
        
        Please, don’t transfer your beef with the USG with what true Americans, who have nothing to do with what the USG has done over the years, have contributed to the world.
        
        That’s why at one point everyone wanted to come to the States, they wanted a piece of it.
        
        Peace.
        
        Simon Chow on July 01, 2021 · at 11:09 am EST/EDT
        
        Doug Ryler, I have the option of “coming to the states”. I opted out, having been forewarned by a true American not to covet the US dollar. I am very glad I took that decision and not earn blood-stained US dollars that stink with the stench of the blood of plundered, economically exploited and murdered victims.
        
        Cat Pillar on July 01, 2021 · at 4:39 pm EST/EDT
        
        So….. why did yous then go thousands of miles to kill Iraqis ‘cos you had a beef with Saddam Hussien? ……. And thousands of miles to kill Afghanis ‘cos you had a beef with Osama Bin Laden (who wasn’t even an Afghani (psst Saudi-your ally))?
        
        I mean, right, your beef was with the gubmints not the peoples – but you killed the peoples anyways.
        
        Seriously – I get it – you don’t like your govt and you want others to dissociate you, the people, from what they do but I reckon those Iraqi + Afghani didn’t much like their govts either but I also reckon your govt and their govts are still better than having your families and children turned into pavement mincemeat.
        
        I doubt many mothers and fathers looking at the blood splotches that used to be their son or daughter think – “But that’s okay, they gave us TVs + pickup trucks and hey, they’re bringing us freedom and democracy.” Would you? Or would you burn with hatred?
        
        Now you’re killing Syrians – why? What did they (or their govt) do to you?
        Now you might say that’s your gubmint but hey – those soldiers – they are “you people.”
        Just following orders?? – Hullo Nuremberg.
        
        You aren’t doing that – your gubmint is? Then what are you, the people, doing to change that – ‘cos like it or not – they represent you, the people. And what they do in your name is what you are doing. And you, the American people, have far more civil rights, liberties and systems in place to make that change than the Iraqis or Afghanis or Syrians ever even dreamed of!
        
        Why should we give you what you don’t give others?
        
        And how may of those people who “wanted to come to the States” did so ‘cos you, the Americans, phucked up their countries and bombed their homes in the first place? How may years since you, the USA, became a country have you not been at war – killing someone far far away? Someone …. not in a position to strike back?
        
        Bostonian on July 01, 2021 · at 12:03 pm EST/EDT
        
        I do not have the time right now to explain, I am concerned about the framing of “technology” in itself…not China (you r correct) or US ( most ppl here r correct)
        
        Just the concept of …. technology (inclusively)… by itself,…as a stand out topic, and it is a sensitive …take some pondering to figur
        
        Sorry, can not go any further, but it is better if I go gentle, then screw up this explanation…sorry
        
        Simon Chow on July 01, 2021 · at 11:01 am EST/EDT
        
        I quote Doug Ryler: “the US plundered indigenous lands and committed massacres throughout the world.
        
        But the industrial and technical and digital revolutions that occurred in the US and impacted the world have nothing to do with those crimes”.
        
        Are you sure? I put it to all that if the US had not committed those crimes, the plundering not just native lands and the mass slaughter around the world, the world would have been far better off and need not have depended on the US to come up with those so-called “industrial and technical and digital revolutions”!
        
        Doug Ryler on July 01, 2021 · at 11:19 am EST/EDT
        
        Simon,
        
        Please explain how those “revolutions” would have occurred in other parts of the world if the USG did not commit those crimes abroad. Saying something out of the blue like that does not make it a reality and doesn’t negate the fact that Americans did spark those “revolutions” that the world adopted.
        
        In addition, saying also that you have the opportunity to come here and don’t doesn’t erase the fact that millions of other people DID choose to make America their home when America was at its peak in the 20th Century.
        
        Peace.
        
        amarynth on July 01, 2021 · at 11:58 am EST/EDT
        
        Its a very difficult thing. People in general do not understand what plunder means and what an extreme effect the current hegemon had on the development of the rest of the world. Even people were plundered, because they could not live in their plundered countries. I don’t want to harp on Trump, but he was clear about it. He just wanted to encourage all the ‘smart’ people to come to the US, and nobody else. But, he also stayed in Syria to steal their oil. These are not hidden issues – he stated it honestly.
        
        I lived in the US for many years and I’m thankful for my years there. I’m married to an American. When 9/11 happened, I was out of there by 12/11, because I was not going to participate in the war parties and by omission or commission take part or pay taxes to the war efforts.
        
        Simon Chow on July 03, 2021 · at 10:44 am EST/EDT
        
        I hesitated to reply since amarynth had captured the gist of what I am getting at and also I wonder whether it will make any difference to your mind-set. But I decided to try.
        
        I have personally seen how ordinary families, however poor and underprivileged, could produce very talented children and grandchildren over several generations. They lifted themselves literarily from the dust by sheer tenacity and will.
        
        If you are impressed by the Bill Gates of this world and the founders of Google, well they may be exceptional but hardly uncommon. More on this later.
        
        But to nurture children so as to enable them to realize their potential needs a reasonable stable family, sustained by a stable society, stable economy and country over several generations.
        
        What the USA had done is to make sure that all its enemies, real or imagined, are destabilized so that they cannot develop their potential and pose a challenge to US primacy in this world.
        
        The US permitted only a few countries on the periphery of China and Russia to prosper as bulwarks against its perceived enemies – Russia and China. These countries are those of Western Europe, Japan and South Korea. Also the Chinese province of Taiwan.
        
        The rest are subjected to destabilization – regime change, economic sabotage, social divisions, wars and outright bombings. The whole of South America was subjected to regime change, internal conflicts and economic sabotage by the US. Africa was led into debt traps by the western banks, subjected to civil wars, assassinations and genocides. Indonesia and the Philippines were also subjected to coups and pro-US dictators whom Reagan fondly termed as “our bast*rds”. Even the Overseas Chinese were subjected to pogroms after pogroms that were inspired, advised, facilitated and/or directly organized by the CIA.
        
        The incompetence of India in governance and its decadent social divisions were boons to the US’s strategy of retarding the development of the rest of the world.
        
        As amarynth pointed out, the “smart” people from these countries have to go to the US to develop themselves and therefore benefit the US. Donald Trump wanted only these “smart” people from those “sh*thole” countries which were transformed into such by US policies.
        
        But “smart” people take several generations of peace, stability and at least moderate economic prosperity to be successfully nurtured.
        
        But during colonization and since WW2, those countries I mentioned were not allowed the stability to develop economically and nurture their talents.
        
        But now, China, beginning with Africa and continuing with the countries participating in the BRI, is stabilising all those countries, Africa especially. Since China’s involvement, beginning in the 21st Century, Africa is growing economically.
        
        Before that, CIA destabilization, British financial predatory practices and French duplicity had brought to Africa, continuous bloodshed in the form of wars, civil wars, genocide and bankruptcy, whilst all the time shipping out its resources as repayment for loans and interests, and payment for the arms they sold to the Africans for them to kill one another.
        
        The US is dead against the BRI and China because the economic stability and prosperity they wrought are challeging the US’s global destabilizing strategy to sustain its global primacy.
        
        But now China is succeeding and Africa is both stabilizing and prospering. Chinese vaccines and anti-pandemic assistance are helping those countries weather the worst effects of the covid-19 pandemic.
        
        And if Africa successfully stabilizes and prospers, then I put it to you that in time, you will find not just one Bill Gates but multiple talents that are even better than the Bill Gates of this world being successfully nurtured even in Timbuktu.
        
        For we are all created by God in His image – Genesis 1:27.
        
        ben sampson on July 01, 2021 · at 12:03 pm EST/EDT
        
        Thanks Simon Chow! You took the worlds right out of my mouth!
        
        There are many white racists and extreme nationalists who are extraordinarily eager to mitigate the awful American path cut through the planet and its people, to its wealth, power and riches. How in heavens name can whatever America did and does be extricated from all America has and is?
        
        not possible!
        
        Rafael on July 01, 2021 · at 2:15 pm EST/EDT
        
        “The Chinese simply used those as their own foundation, then built on them”
        
        That may be so, but it is largely irrelevant, apart from being of historical interest. Every rising civilisation uses the technologies from earlier periods, which of course the US did, in no small measure, during its early boom years.
        
        SourGrape on July 06, 2021 · at 1:41 am EST/EDT
        
        Exactamente !
        Recall James Burke’s documentary series “CONNECTIONS” circa 1978
        (a) all new inventions were derived from old inventions, directly or indirectly
        (b) why re-invent the wheel ?
- Arshan on June 30, 2021 · at 7:53 pm EST/EDT
  
  The main features of the Chinese/Eurasian Economy, and its impact on the World, is a task for the 2030’s.
- laodan on June 30, 2021 · at 11:19 pm EST/EDT
  
  Three things largely explain the confusion in the figures :
  1.US “Hedonic adjustments” literally manipulates the inflation figures and GDP is thus inflated. Search for “Hedonic adjustments” and see for yourself.
  2. China’s GDP calculation still does not include all the activities of the country… In other words the system is quite new and progresses gradually (health care for example was only added 3 or 4 years ago if my memory serves me well).
  3. the conversion in dollar terms is still carrying the illusion of the US dollar’s worth…
  
  So yes your examples of the real economy are contradicting the illusion at the heart of the official figures.
  
  Now by PPP terms (values adjusted for the buying power of currencies locally) the picture is rather different. These figures are World bank estimates for 2021 (PPP, US$ million) :
  China : 26,656,766
  USA : 22,675,271
  European Union : 20,918,062
- Gorgeous George on July 01, 2021 · at 3:52 am EST/EDT
  
  Thank you for these numbers.
Disaffected on June 30, 2021 · at 5:51 pm EST/EDT

In this case, Chinese exceptionalism means respecting Confucianism – which privileges harmony and abhors conflict – as well as Daoism – which privileges balance – over the boisterous, warring, hegemonic Western model.

The fatal flaw in the US-dominated western hegemonic model can be summed up in one of the US military’s most cherished buzz-phrases: Full Spectrum Dominance. The western mindset just can’t bear to live in harmony with anything, even its own citizens. It has a pathological need to dominate anything and everything it comes into contact with, which is now finally(!) leading to its own undoing. All the good will and potential “peace dividend” in the wake of the Cold War of the early 90s completely squandered and converted to mountains of ill-will, death, and destruction to enrich a relative handful of power hungry plutocrats!

In a related note, one of the main players in that pathology, one Donald H. Rumsfeld, has finally died and descended to hell not 30 miles from where I sit typing now, in Taos NM. He was no doubt a key player, planner, and organizer in 9-11 scam and the subsequent invasion of Iraq, and thus deserves a special seat in Hell next to Satan. Known for his pithy, word salad witticisms, Rumsfeld now waits to be rejoined with his Dark Master and mentor Dick Cheney, who is rumored to be nothing less than Satan himself incarnate. May history heap scorn, ridicule, and abuse on these two and their progeny for the rest of days.
- Tommy Apeiron on July 01, 2021 · at 9:10 am EST/EDT
  
  “The western mindset just can’t bear to live in harmony with anything, even its own citizens. It has a pathological need to dominate anything and everything it comes into contact with, which is now finally(!) leading to its own undoing.”
  
  The Hopi have a word for this, koyaanisqatsi, or life out of balance. Their encounter, first with the Spanish and then with the AngloZionist Empire (USA), was fraught with conflict and dissension. They among the Pueblo tribes are the only ones to successfully resist conversion to Catholicism, i.e., domination and exploitation.
  
  Their encounter with Americans was a constant struggle that goes on to this very day. The Empire is, after all, not only about domination and exploitation, but as you say, the pathological rejection of all human values for the sake of monetary profit and material gain. Manifest Destiny is a subset of Zionism which is driven by the racist notion that some Europeans were “chosen” by God to range around the planet, displacing the indigenous, stealing their land and resources, and ultimately bringing human history to an end in an apocalyptic conflict described in their Bible. May Heaven preserve us all from the wrath of the chosenites.
Brianborou on June 30, 2021 · at 6:02 pm EST/EDT

It seems there are a few points missing from the narrative about the Chinese Wirtschaftwunder. For example, in 1971 David Rockefeller convened a meeting of the 300 top CEOS of US corporations to outline his plan for transforming the agrarian economy of China into an industrial one. What is significant about this was it before Nixon began his 1972 historic visit of re-establishing diplomatic relations between the US and communist China and at the meeting were senior Chinese Communist Party officials. James Corbett explores this and the links between the highest levels of the Chinese Communist party and the Central Bankers who de facto control the Western world !

https://www.corbettreport.com/episode-297-china-and-the-new-world-order/
- jürgen on June 30, 2021 · at 7:43 pm EST/EDT
  
  Bankers are no longer the dark sorcerers that secretly control everything.
  
  Since the rise of capitalism and imperialism in the middle of last millennium, money became the essence of control and hence power. Bankers were all-powerful.
  
  In this new millennium, we have something more powerful than money: pure information. He who controls the flow of data is the master. And in this respect, the CPC is far more powerful than any legacy bank.
  - Brianborou on July 01, 2021 · at 3:13 am EST/EDT
    
    Really, look at who controls the Federal Reserve, most of nations banks around the world plus the Chinese one , look who controls de facto the world currency, look at controls the IMF, WB and BlackRock which is controlled by Vanguard. Suggest you do more research my friend!
- Anonymous on July 02, 2021 · at 1:10 am EST/EDT
  
  I’ve heard a proverb (apparently Greek): ‘Stupid is not the one who eats fives pita, stupid is the one who gave them to him’.
donald charuba on June 30, 2021 · at 7:08 pm EST/EDT

Once again, Mr. Escobar is able to fluidly foretell the future as envisioned by the Great (nouveau Ming) Dynasty.
In this age of ,rapidly diminishing western culture, Mr Escobar is teasing our mind with truth and possibilities
that would never manifest itself in corporate print. May he never use 4 letter adjectives or a review on….:transporters 12, “Bat out of hell 7” or ”fast and furious 16”.
Thank you Mr, Escobar!

Don Charuba…….bi-ped mammal ,historion and middle finger of seriously old Hoopsters
- Molip on June 30, 2021 · at 10:46 pm EST/EDT
  
  “… Mr. Escobar is able to fluidly foretell the future …”
  
  A past unforgettable example. When Nato was busily bombing Libya in March 2011 he wrote “There are only three out of 20 nations on or in the Mediterranean that are not full members of NATO or allied with its ‘partnership’ programs: Libya, Lebanon and Syria. Make no mistake; Syria is next.”
  
  And it was.
Kevin Frost on June 30, 2021 · at 7:18 pm EST/EDT

I see Pepe is gravitating towards this ‘elephant in the room’ insight that a great many sense but cannot quite clarify into an apt formulation. We hear the very loudest noises coming from the West to the effect that political democracy is the great sacred value of civilisation which is under threat from authoritarian regimes, read China and Russia. Yet the propaganda we hear is completely at variance with what we know. We know that our Western governments are oligarchies that have descended into a terminal state of corruption, one moreover characterised by deeply entrenched domestic hostilities between classes, factions, ethnicities, and creeds. We know, or at least those of us who have listened to Godfree Roberts, Jeff Brown, and of course Pepe Escobar, that the CCP has achieved political and economic miracles in a country that was prostrate from colonialism, wars and revolution when some of us were children. Their way is better than ours if we ‘seek truth from facts’ and not dogma. But as that is so, how then do we talk about it, how to think about it? What does this mean in terms of theory? This is a broad and deep subject, the stuff of political philosophy. Here I’ll just briefly register my two bits. China has over the years evolved into a contemporary form of what Polybius anciently termed a ‘mixed constitution’. That means that the government synthesises the three virtuous forms of governance namely monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. It would be lengthy to go into this but what the Party has become compares favorably to our terminal oligarchy and millions, even billions the world over sense this. The Western Masters of the Universe (P.E.) are sensible of this. They fear China, and rightly so. Their only protection now is the fig leaf of massive and broadcast propaganda and all the hatred they can whip up. In this they are remarkably successful in the West but even so the world watches as the West sinks into it’s own toxic stew while China goes from strength to strength. Again, what we are looking at is best characterised as a ‘mixed constitution’ but to put a point on things it’s fair to say that China is an aristocracy, the ‘rule of the best’ or ‘rule of the good’. That is the real alternative to oligarchy. There are many who say that China’s government is unique to it’s civilisation and so, no worries, it won’t spread to other parts of the world. This argument is a half truth. What is unique to China is the confident doctrine of natural human goodness. But aristocracy, the rule of the best or the good, this has a broader purchase. But this is a large subject.
- amarynth on June 30, 2021 · at 7:40 pm EST/EDT
  
  Kevin, I specifically handled the Chinese Governance in the last China sitrep. They call their system of governance a Unique Political Creation. Go and grab the documents here: /sitrep-here-comes-china-great-chinese-firewall-governance-space-and-spinach/
  
  But it is all written down and major documentation was done for this centennial.
  - Kevin Frost on June 30, 2021 · at 9:02 pm EST/EDT
    
    Thanks Amarynth, I missed the link although I did read through your sitrep, as always (and thank you for your worthy efforts). I’ll have a read and comment – in time! It’s a big subject. I easily agree that what the CCP has achieved is unique. What is likely to elicit questions and perhaps controversy is whether a Western, Hellenistic theory is suited to achieve a just analysis of non western developments – as I suggested. This, clearly, is linked to the question of whether the use of terms like ‘politics’ has any universal validity. To anticipate conclusions I aim to argue yes, it does. I take the view (which I picked up from Ashis Nandy) that the differences between the West and East is not nearly as great as between modernity and tradition. The political theory I called attention to – Polybius and his idea of the mixed constitution – is of the traditional sort which is predicated upon an opposition between virtuous and corrupt forms of governance. Modernity (constitutionally speaking) essentially incorporates corruption as a working part of the system, so our Marlboro man, systemic self interest, separation of powers and all. What has engaged our attention as regards China is exactly it’s – quite unique – fight against corruption and insistence on virtuous governmental ethics, which really means government for the benefit of the people. Again, this is a very traditional idea that is common to both east and west. This is so but on the other hand the classical humanistic tradition is also the source of our inherited ideas of ‘oriental despotism’ which systematically defames all Asiatic political forms from the arrogant perspective of a presumed higher standpoint of the ‘political association’. All this is in Aristotle (and endlessly recycled). I think it’s basically this aspect of Western humanism that Smoothie fulminates about. He’s right, in my view. So, all in all, I want to argue from the standpoint of broadly shared traditions that value virtuous governance but it’s neither easy or straitforward. Anyway, thanks for the link.
- jürgen on June 30, 2021 · at 8:18 pm EST/EDT
  
  I think the secret sauce of the Chinese Miracle is rather mundane: it is that the Communist Party of China is the largest and hence most efficient human organization in history.
  
  It is far beyond any contemporary Western church or corporation. By this I mean actual productive membership, not mere card-carrying affiliates.
  
  The twin ideologies of the West, capitalism and liberalism, put hard caps on organizational size. An executive focus on short-term profit kills long-term growth and evolution. Liberal hyperindividualism encourages members to be selfish and take from the organization to enrich themselves or their small families
  
  By contrast, Confucianism and Marxism are very much interested in building large families, collectives, parties, organizations, etc.
  
  And indeed, what is the first sentence of Chairman Mao’s little red book?
  
  > “The force at the core leading our cause forward is the Chinese Communist Party.”
  
  Not Marx, Mao, or God–the organization itself!
  - Simon Chow on July 01, 2021 · at 6:35 pm EST/EDT
    
    I think the Roman Catholic Church is by far the richest and most efficient human organization in history and also currently.
    - jürgen on July 02, 2021 · at 4:27 pm EST/EDT
      
      Surely not. Historically–absolutely. But it’s far too old and inflexible to adapt to the current era.
- Analyst on June 30, 2021 · at 8:35 pm EST/EDT
  
  The single significant factor of Chinese and Russian governance is that no one gets into high levels of government who is not educated, trained, prepared, for the role. Their minds are focused on serving the people.
  This is the key contrast to the imbecile, corrupt, self-serving elitist-minded political class we have in the Anglo-Saxon and European worlds…
  The question of ‘propaganda’ is indeed one in which the West excels but i note in recent months a more determined effort by both the Russians and Chinese to make their views more strongly heard.
- Anonymous on July 01, 2021 · at 7:57 am EST/EDT
  
  Quite correct; China is an aristocracy.
  But I rather see it as a “science-based” or “knowledge-based” system: a gnosiocracy – except gnosis is carries other connotations – as does “cognitiocracy”.
  Anyway, it is a modernised and updated reiteration of the old mandarinate system
  - Kevin Frost on July 01, 2021 · at 9:19 am EST/EDT
    
    Thank you. Aristocracy means ‘rule of the best’ and/or ‘rule of the good’. What qualifies the term aristocracy is precisely the examination system, then or now. The exact content of that which is examined – always knowledge – changes with the historical epoch. Previously it was all about mastering the Four Books and Five Classics. Presently most of the leadership have engineering degrees. But we are not dealing with ‘representative government’. The qualification of what we term ‘legitimacy’ is not a question of representation but rather of what we once called ‘virtue’. So I take the view that the development of the CCP is actually reviving an old tradition of this ‘virtue’ or even ‘good government’. Moreover it ought to be recognised as a revolutionary development, even though it’s really quite ‘conservative’ in a sense. Or viewed from another angle, it really is viewed as revolutionary by the oligarchic powers that be (witness the bombast of hucksters like Steve Bannon). They know that the world watches and that their civilisational hold on Africa, swaths of Asia and Latin America is being profoundly challenged by Chinese competence, productivity and clean governance. Chinese success is driving oligarchic pretentiousness into a corner as they increasingly resort to the rhetoric of ‘oriental despotism’ and totalitarian authoritarianism.
    - Tollef Ås/秋涛乐/טלפ וש on July 01, 2021 · at 12:44 pm EST/EDT
      
      Aristocreacy does not mean “rule of the best” but “rule by the high-uppity”: Arista –cf. Aristoteles/Acropolis/aristo-cats”. Cracy: rule/dictatorship/privlilege. Whatever one thinks of Communist China, it is not like that.
      - vientito on July 01, 2021 · at 2:22 pm EST/EDT
        
        maybe meritocracy is a more apt term. Those who excel in their field deserve the position.
      - Kevin Frost on July 02, 2021 · at 5:50 am EST/EDT
        
        Aristocracy is a term derived from the Greek and it means ‘best’. The reason why I use the term is because it belongs to a systematic order of terms that relate to the elements of the political order both in terms of quantity and quality. The quantitative ideas are the ‘one’, the few, and the many which correspond to monarchy, aristocracy and democracy. These are assigned qualitative values. So monarchy can descend into tyranny, aristocracy can fall to the level of oligarchy, and democracy can become an anarchic mob rule led by demagogues. The old Greek system of terms is preferable to the hip shooting conceptions of modern sociology. Above all, we need an analytic language that discriminates between the virtue of public spirited and competent governance on the one hand and self interested veniality on the other, or politics such as we know it. What qualifies Chinese aristocracy over the centuries has been the examination system. It selects the best scholars. That’s the idea. Whether they are learned in the classics or the modern sciences with engineering degrees, the idea is to select the best. The government of China these days is by far the most impressive in the world. Their achievements are unparalleled. The government of this country fully deserves the term ‘aristocratic.’
  - Tollef Ås/秋涛乐/טלפ וש on July 01, 2021 · at 11:54 am EST/EDT
    
    ‘Aristocracy’ means “rule by the high-ups (superiors). In the “West” (Europe) their high-uppities have made “superiority” become inheritable. This was called “the nobility”. In Imperial China, in addition to the mandarisns (well-educated top bureaucrats) and imperial eunucks, they also had “nobility”. However, they were demoted to one grade below for each generation (even if well-behaved), and finally became commoners as time passed. Or “landed gentry”. No such passing-along-of-privledges will any longer be tolerated under Xí Jìnpíng, it seems.
ovaltine on June 30, 2021 · at 7:22 pm EST/EDT

Excellent again, Pepe. But keep us informed on how it’s going out there, on the ground – The BRI – how is it moving. We need a progress report.
Ian Shears on June 30, 2021 · at 7:34 pm EST/EDT

About one third of Aussie people and no government folk wish China well on its 100th birthday.
- vientito on June 30, 2021 · at 7:54 pm EST/EDT
  
  Well, on a grand scheme of things, does that really matter?
  - Who cares? on July 01, 2021 · at 1:30 am EST/EDT
    
    No, not much.
    Under the big land hat there are not many sheeple.
    
    Total populatio: c. 25 million
    Government: 2nd best level subaltern weasles that corporate money can buy.
    Pro/neutral China: c. 8 million
    Anti-China: c. 16 million.
    
    Population of Sri Lanaka: c. 20 million.
    
    Population of Chinese top-10 cities:
    
    Chongqing – 31.2 Million People. …
    Shanghai – 24.3 Million People. …
    Beijing – 21.5 Million People. …
    Chengdu – 16.6 Million People. …
    Tianjin – 15.6 Million People. …
    Guangzhou – 15.3 Million People. …
    Shenzhen – 13.4 Million People. …
    Wuhan – 11.2 Million People.
Fred on June 30, 2021 · at 9:47 pm EST/EDT

“The bull led by the ring through its nose makes progress; but is not free!” – Yes. I said it.
laodan on June 30, 2021 · at 10:49 pm EST/EDT

Thanks Pepe. You are definitely right that “To comment on the torrent of Western misinterpretations of China is a waste of time”.

I think that we also have to recognize that to understand China, as non-Chinese, we have to go back to the transition from tribal societies to power societies 12,000 to 5,000 years ago). This is when the differentiation, between the two civilizational models, finds its root. This differentiation gave :

— rupture with animism in the Fertile Crescent and the need to invent a new worldview narrative that opposes animism (Gobekle tepe had to be covered under a thick layer of dirt to free the path of that new narrative). Men of power as the head of power societies (kingdoms and empires) with the men of knowledge as their servants

— continuity of animism in China with constant actualization to present changes by topping the knowledge base with “add-ons” while the traditional animist sage, among the men of knowledge, imperceptibly slipped in the position of head of power societies.

Unfortunately the subject is so vast that a comment can only scratch its surface. It took me 700 pages to describe this in my new book “the continuity of the cultural field” in which I propose that our present thinking and behaviors are modulated by our cultural field (axioms of civilization + worldview). What this means is that our free-will is largely illusory… and the only way to escape the illusion is through knowledge…
Anonymous on July 01, 2021 · at 12:19 am EST/EDT

The Chinese ‘miracle’ was captured by the saying of the Little Helmsman: “To seek truth from facts, not from dogmas, whether from East or West”. And the facts have been spelled out by Renmin University Professor Wang Yiwei: “the two great civilizations of the East and the West were linked until the rise of the Ottoman Empire cut off the Ancient Silk Road”.
I would push it back a little. It was Islam that first cut off the Ancient Silk Road.
It is now clear that all civilizations developed along the mountainous Alpino-Caucasian-Himalayan-Altai chain that runs like a spine from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans and along the rivers that flow out of it. The plains that extend to the north of this chain and the deserts to the south were a place of refuge for ‘rebels’ and outcasts from these civilizations, who developed a ‘nomadic’ pastoral-warrior ‘culture’ which made a way of living by periodically plundering and extracting tributes from the settled populations of both East and West and taxing the commerce between them. These outcasts and rebels and bands of warrior-robbers/pirates are in certain views the ‘creators’ of the ‘European civilization’. Far from that, of course. They only disturbed the ancient ties and imprisoned themselves into a hubristic ethnocentric mental bubble. But there are clear signs that they spent most of their energies in futile pursuits of world domination and that ‘facts’ reassert themselves. America is the last refuge of the pirates, but it is clear that it lost steam also. Very soon we’ll travel the Ancient Silk Road by high-speed trains (made in China).
zhuge liang21 on July 01, 2021 · at 5:50 am EST/EDT

A reply to Escobar.

1. INTERPRETATIONS. Escobar is right to say China/Chinese don’t care very much (if at all) for what the western world says about it — a “waste of time,” he says, over a “torrent of Western misinterpretations.” The reason we don’t care is
(a) China doesn’t answer to the White man, and
(b) what they West says doesn’t decide our internal — or even foreign — policies.

Chinese counter punches would be helpful if they addressed those misinterpretations. But Escobar knows very well that words and acts of the West are not “misinterpretations”. They are a deliberate anti-China campaign to slander and demonize us (Xinjiang, Huawei) in the world, weaken and undermine China from the inside (Hong Kong, Taiwan), and prepare the ground to contain, sanction and even attack China militarily. We saw the same MO repeatedly in 1840, 1859, 1910, and 1949.

2. EXCEPTIONALISM. Escobar is a friend of China so we hate to point out that he is mistaken about how China/Chinese see themselves in the world and at themselves. (Martin Jacques also doesn’t truly understand the Chinese.) One way to see the mistake is, first, grasp the deeply inflective, inward-looking and ethical Chinese culture. For that reason, you actually have to grow up a Chinese, in a Chinese family, within a Chinese community, inside a Chinese state to see what that meant. The next problem is to convey those Chinese perceptions to an Anglo-American dominated world that follows its own proselytizing rules and overbearing, dogmatic standards.

Those two ideas when taken together will tell you why there is no thing as “Chinese exceptionalism”. We don’t see ourselves as “exceptional” as Anglo-Saxons see themselves as exceptional in their White racist bigotry as supreme because that Escobar way of seeing the Chinese violates and contradict his own logical axiom: how can you be exceptional if you are constantly arguing against yourself (i.e. inward-looking)?

This is also why Chinese, upon Deng’s “opening up”, were incredulous that there is a thing as ‘racism’.

Escobar is right in his summary of Confucianism (which “privileges harmony” vs western penchant for conflict) and Daoism (“which privileges balance” vs the warring, uncivilized Western model rooted its Christianity and its Roman hegemonic past). But, again, you have to grow up a Chinese to truly grasp what these philosophies mean in real life: “Harmony” does not mean you don’t challenge orthodoxy. On the contrary: harmony requires it. Hegel and Heidegger understood this as dialectics. “Balance” does not mean we won’t kill the Yankee or Brit who step on Chinese soil without permission.

3. CHINA’S PLACE IN THE WORLD. The Middle Kingdom （中国）misnomer is repeated to no end by White bigots and their Anglophile poodle dogs. In China, the term arose circa 500-200 BCE when China was split into a dozen states and the final victor Qin state was sitting in the middle of a dozen other hostile states. Even the term of “kingdom” is not applicable to China in the English sense of the word “king”. If Escobar knows Chinese history he would be able to tell why that is so. Why else do numerous dynasties have install boys as emperors? In the circumstances, however, it is not erroneous to compare China in the 21st Century to one, say, 2,000 years ago because we ourselves do it. But, again, Escobar is contradictory in his arguments.

Here’s the contradiction:
(a) “Xi’s historical counterpart is the Hongwu emperor Zhu, the founder of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644)” vs
(b) “21st century China under Xi will not retreat inward as it did under the Ming. The parallel for the near future would rather be with the Tang dynasty (618-907).”

So, which epoch do the Chinese see themselves? Tang (lasting 400 years) or Ming (300 years)? The fact is none of the above. That sort of comparison is strictly the invention of western pseudo-Sinologists (whatever that is).

When the Chinese look to the past, they look for instructions for the present and future, that is, some governance model rather than at a self-gratuitous image of a glorious past (that’s a given). For inventiveness in governance, Xi Jinping is often compared to Zhuge Liang 諸葛亮 and Liu Bei 劉備 combined; the former the prime minister to the latter as emperor in the last decades of the Han dynasty during an era called the Three States (220-280CE), sometimes Three Kingdoms.

Apologies to Escobar for pointing out the errors.
- aloha on July 01, 2021 · at 6:42 am EST/EDT
  
  zhuge liang21, are you a member of CCP?
  
  ‘Apologies to Escobar for pointing out the errors.’
  If those are errors, then there is no need of apologies, something also contradiction here?!
  
  If you are willing, and have some time, zhuge liang21, pls share w us,
  how has your life improve or affected, by the national policy launched by CCP?
  Did your live really got better?! In what specific ways?
  Thanks :)
  
  bwbs
- David on July 01, 2021 · at 8:59 am EST/EDT
  
  At the end of the day – China and the CCPP have a mono- culture they are dealing with – starting with Confucianism and the Chinese Family and then the CCP discipline on top of all that produces a powerhouse
  
  Rapid gains also can be seen in the Jewish culture in Israel from inception of Israel also a mono culture
  
  The current US mime that ” Diversity is a strength” – is a – lie – and a disaster for the stability and growth of the USA – it has in the fullness of time since 1965, when it took off, created a babel of words and defeatist policies that mean nothing constructive. Today even Math is deemed a racist system in the USA because the demographic has a 58 to 84 IQ and cannot cope with absolutes – 2+2=4 !
  
  Tolerance breeds bad behavior – Intolerance – which the Chinese have in abundance – fosters performance
- subhuti37 on July 01, 2021 · at 9:42 am EST/EDT
  
  As a Westerner, who got acquainted with Chinese culture through Zen Buddhism, which is in fact Chinese in nature, and a synthesis of Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism, it seems to me that the inherent difference between Chinese culture and Western culture is the sense of Non duality, vs dualism.
  
  One Chinese girl I met on a train said that in school she’s taught that individualism is harmful. Chinese are raised with a sense of the self that goes beyond the individual person’s wants and desired…always thinking of the other person. That is why they’re able to introspect, whereas Westerners are quite poor at introspection or the other social emotions, such as kindness, compassion, empathy, etc.
  
  They’re constantly looking to improve themselves, whereas Westerners are increasingly just looking to acquire.
  
  I stayed with several Chinese families, and although relations varied, some were more harmonious than others, I could see how children are raised to be diligent and conscientious. One father wrote a piece of calligraphy, which stated his unconditional support for his daughter, while urging her to ‘always look for the deeper meaning’.
  
  Chinese character is simply deeper than shallow Westerners. Which makes them far more interesting as people.
- fred123 on July 01, 2021 · at 11:08 am EST/EDT
  
  Thank you, zhuge liang21 for your inside perspecitves.
  
  I don’t wish to argue with these points specifically — you are entitled to your opinions. However, I can make some comments from a Anglosaxon/Celt (Australian) male of senior years who has done a small amount of research into Chinese history since an elective in the 1970’s undergraduate degree.
  
  I do not present them as ‘facts’ but rather as my own opinions and experiences in response to your claims:
  
  1. Your “The reason we don’t care” (a & b) conveys very little information other than that you appear as another angry subaltern perpsective trying to find your identity and agency in the modern/postmodern/structural world. There are any number of coconuts and bananas (white on the inside) running around attacking the “white” “other” by way of envy as if there was some informational value in angry younger brother claims against the older.
  
  2. Of course your reflective complaints about “1840, 1859, 1910, and 1949” are valid in retrospect. As, I am sure, are your (collective) complaints about the Mongol invasions that occured in your deep past, in spite of the Great Walls erected to keep out the northern barbarians, and the disputes with the Koreans, and dealing with the equally exclusionary Japanese rise during the 19th and 20th centuries based on western technology and an ’emporer’ who rose the sun each morning by decree.
  
  3. The problem is, in literature, social media, and person-to-person interactions with Yue Chinese domain, with its superior 9-tone Cantonese compared to the dominant Han in the north of China with their limited 5-tone dialects, the han are seen as cultural invaders and not ‘real’ Chinese. There is not one China, but rather, like Europe and India, ther are many (four at least). Further south in Vietnam they basically hate the lot of you for the 1,000 years of empire domination. Feel free to verify my comment — I suggest a visit to certain islands off the coats of Hai Phong where (although they liked my tourism visit c. 2013) would, as was explained to me over a dinner with a upper class landed individual, be quite happy to cut your Chinese throats from ear to ear on a moonless night anytime you wish to return. So, you see, what your presenting here just confirms and reinforces where you are coming from in your new found ‘power’ and sense of confidence expressed here. For many in South east Asia — you are the ‘whitey’!
  
  4. It is much the same tensions in subaltern ‘privilaged’ India with its rigid caste system othering the local indiginous tribes. There is nothing ‘white’ about that pre-European history of invasion or emerging extant postcolonial conditionality. Welcome to the real world beyond your inward parochial reflexions. Now what are you going to do with this new modern privilage and responsibility? That is what the extant ‘club’ wants to know. Many of the older cohort can remember the cultural revolution and Mao’s little red book and the cult purges. We also remember Nixon & Co opening the door to China (for their own nefarious aims of course) — but without that your country would likely still be only a few steps ahead of North Korea in advancement.
  
  5. My critique is that I (and many others I am sure) are waiting for something new to emerge in the world of affairs. This angry adolecent outburst claiming justification from past events means very little in this pragmatic context. It is accepted as a necessary decompression step — but the response is a big yawn on the epitemological front. Any group with industry and focus (and borrowed technology — as the Europeans did with silk, fine china, paper and gunpower) can make a big splash at the shallow end of the pool. But where is the science? Sure, I like the idea of Feng Shi, and it may even inform architercute and aesthetics, but it does not get people to the Moon or Mars. And magical thinking from New Guinea to Beijing is of the same level when comes to eating the wildlife into extinction because of some 101-level placebo principle that helps you get your collective Yang up!
  
  6. I’ve also met a number of upper level Pakistani people (and others of the same view) — and they have very little good to say about their experiences with the Chinese projects in their domains. Nothing ‘white’ there. I cannot say what their specific complaints were. Nor how valid they were, but the Vietnamese attitude was not far off. Perhaps that has something to do with your cultural closed-ness, Triad gangs, and general implicit empire arrogance. Only 80 years ago Japan was welcomed as liberators throughout SE Asia down to Indonesia — until after a few years they were detested more so than the Europeans. China risks repeating this error, imo.
  
  7. “When the Chinese look to the past, they look for instructions for the present and future,…” — indeed, a focus on a close governance-cultural fit is the key. As the Russians are demonstrating, their post-feudal model (interupted by communism) requires a Czar like figure to tap and focus the organic energies of the people. And for many of us, it is a joy to see people (humans!) get their collective acts together and get on with building their futures and good sustainable lives. Go for it! The trick is to get the requisite variety (voice diversity) into the policy process. The Communist party process of 80-million members has that bottom-up process within it. Managing a population of 1.2billion with these policies is simply a scale problem that does not need “American” democracy. And that is their complaint. However, our/our collective human macrohistory points to never ending dynastic cycles. And the non-Chinese today want to know the obvious question: what is in it for us, and our kids and grandkids?
  
  8. I’ll close with a general observation about your claims of ‘virtuous inward focus’ and family etc. Chinese collectively are known here as the “Jews of Asia”. Why is this so? I assume because because it has some truth to it (from an outsiders perspective). Like the Hindu that excludes all others as barbarians and relegates them (us) to the parts of their body-based cultural models that correspond with “untouchable” (think of your times in the toilet and what you wipe with your left hand!), there are at least two levels of othering. One is just the arrogance and hubris of empire and upper elite classes of all colours that has no specific face or age — power just corrupts. The other is deeper and more pernicious and pathological. Let’s take the ex-slave-class Jews of the Middle east (not so much the latter Ashkenazi converts) as an example.
  
  9. What you call “European/White” etc is actually a shallow culture because the dominant Enlighenment rationality excluded other more indigneous traditions. [For example, look at the works of Santos, B. (2014) 2016. Epistemologies of the South. Justice against Epistemicide. New York: Routledge.] The deeper malaise is the ‘exceptionalism’ implied in the Jewish underpinnings of this so called Christian civilization. These traumatised slave-class sandwiched between the Hittite-Egyptian-Persian civilizations developed a matrilineal ‘excluded-god’ model with an 8-day male genitial mutilation identity ritual, based on superstition and the alternative “Lilith” (rather than Eve) myth, to lock it in. They, the sub-tibes of Judah and Benjamin, were not exactly seen as “in the house” of Israel (more on the veranda) — and their gripe is the rest of the Israelites basically intermarried and mingled with the greater populations — i.e., they are the Middle-east today being persecuted by the latest cult crusades by ‘European’ Jews. And their food prohibitions are a key feature.
  
  10. So, you see, a love of eating pigs is not so easy to reconcile with Semetic based cultures (or vegetarians).
  However, my comment is only to point to a deeper cause of exclusion based on cultural customs that are basically incommensurable. That should be recognised (as it was in the founding of Islam) and dealt with by treaty etc. Of course, that is not possible at the moment with the “non agreement capable” USA empire. But that is not a ‘white’ thing. This Anglo-American cult driven enterprise (extending on from the East India Company etc) is now basically overrun by criminals — your pirate types. Always there (as in China and Russia) but never as dominant, and in the control rooms of state, as they are now. Focus on this aspect would serve China’s (and Russia’s) foriegn agenda better than clumsy postmodern/structural ‘woke’ attacks on all inclusive ‘whites’. None of us are white except in teeth and bones (and maybe hair). There is great diversity and every one has family. We just see it as an evolutionary advance to have the feedoms of individuality beyond this tribal family business. Jung called it individuation. Agreed, this hard won achievement has problems at scale and is now very much under attack from within. Hopefully for a positive transformation — not retrograde.
  
  Look to the ‘ex’ British colony called Singapore — that department store with an airport run by the Lee family gang manned by machine gun carrying officials. Yes, they have elections to qualify for teh WTO club etc. However, the controlled ‘opposition’ never wins (ever) and all citizens on that plantation are prohibited (on death penalty) from any prohibitied drug taking anywhere on the planet. Legally they can never leave the plantation. That sort of ‘family’ experience, like the Italian Mafia, is NOT the family experience that privilaged — “that is so last 3 centuries ago!” — whitey have any interest in falling back into.
  
  [Singapore’s People’s Action Party (PAP) were elected to power in 1959 with 43 out of the 51 seats in the Assembly. Lee Kuan Yew became the first Prime Minister and the PAP remained in power without discontinuity since then with never less than 95% of the parliamentary seats. In 2007, Canadian lawyers concluded that a “number of factors amply demonstrate that Singapore is not governed by the rule of law” (Bryan et al. 2007, 21). In respect to sovereign and disciplinary power, 23 prisoners have been executed in Singapore for drug offences Under Section 17 of the Misuse of Drugs Act (2008) since 2010 – only five have been executed for other offences. In contrast to relatively relaxed legislation in Europe and North America/Canada for soft drugs, Singapore’s Section 31 permits enforced urinalysis and section 8A “prohibits any citizen or permanent resident of Singapore to use any prohibited drug outside of the country, and if found guilty to be punished as if they committed that act within the country” https://www.sg-visit.com/controlled-of-drug/ ]
  
  So, I hope my response helps with your understanding of the other side of the equation. Everyone loves the gadgets, the food is fantastic, the music is a bit alien to European ears, and the mystercism is fine and good. But that does not automatically translate into an acceptance of an introverted, communist cult-based worldview that can not easily be generalised to the wider world. Solve that complex issue and you have a great future up in first-world class like the rest.
  - jürgen on July 01, 2021 · at 12:25 pm EST/EDT
    
    Indeed, your comment comes off as stuck 30-50 years in the past (China has many more than 1.2B people right now!) and saturated with unscientific Western preconceptions and race-obsessed modes of thinking.
    - Anonymous on July 01, 2021 · at 8:16 pm EST/EDT
      
      Ok, well look at that … hot off the internet google search — it is 1.398 billion (2019).
      What a contribution you made there.
      I span back 65 years into the past — but I can assure you I’m not stuck anywhere other than today.
      Apart from my unfortunate eyesight and poor typing/editing skills the post above is how I see it.
  - watcher on July 02, 2021 · at 3:46 am EST/EDT
    
    Fred (Sir Fred perhaps)
    Well goodness gracious me Sahib. Do you want your tea and muffins now sir?
    
    What an entitled load of imperialist comments.
    1. it is fundamentally racist for you to call out someone as an angry subaltern who simply says we do not care. I would rather call it the comment of an adult who finally says to his father that he does not care if he disapproves of his career choice. it is about growing into an independent adult, not about being an angry subaltern- or schoolboy. Your sahib is showing through.
    
    2. “Of course your reflective complaints about “1840, 1859, 1910, and 1949” are valid in retrospect. ” In retrospect. Really. I think that even in 1840 a civilized brit would have understood the opium wars were morally reprehensible and 1910 caused the Boxer rebellion and FFS 1949 is hardly in retrospect. These were each deeply offensive actions. Jeepers the Scots have not yet forgiven the English for Culloden and i so not think the Welsh are fully reconciled to the English invasion. What you seem to object to is the Chinese daring to argue that the treatment by the British and US was wrong. How dare my servants speak to me rudely.
    
    3. Yes the Vietnamese hate the Chinese – nothing new there. The existence of rivalry between the North and South i can agree with although as i understand it the northerners regard the southerners as backward uncultured clots.
    
    4. Not sure what the comment of India has to do with the price of fish Sahib
    
    5. This is just a frighteningly arrogant piece of outdated imperialist nonsense. China is not really about feng shi anymore. Nor do the average Chinese eat their wildlife. This is mostly just western propaganda. No doubt like US hillbillies and English yokels there are those who stick to outdated practices but to liken China to a crgo cult activity is appalling.
    
    7. Not quite sure of the point
    
    8. Yes the Chinese and the Indians are often regarded with hostility as were the Jews of Europe. Those with wealth and a clear separate identity will always be such a target. Yes if the Chinese government is wise it will clamp down on any sort of unfair trading or oppression by its diaspora.
    
    The rest is confusing and off topic. Yes Singapore is a dynasty not a democracy. Your point is however not clear.
    6. This is obvious. All top dog countries need to watch out for back lash.
    - fred123 on July 02, 2021 · at 5:28 am EST/EDT
      
      Well, at least something olde Fred can respond to:
      
      1. One I notice with this indoctrinated woke generation is they actually care what others think about them. Names mean absolutely nothing. But that old primary school song seems to have left the curriculum a generation or two ago. “Fundamentally racist for you to call out someone as an angry subaltern…” — actually, it is simple pain English and I do not subscribe to ‘cancel culture’ memes. You can see it as racist if you choose. What you’re lacking it seems is the ability to read the fine print — I have an opinion I chose to share and I made an effort to prefix my points with that. Deconstructing your response in (1) indicates that you fail to see the subtle distinctions between raising a ‘worldview’ opinion and stating an ‘ontological’ fact. It is simply your opinion that my comment was/is “fundamentally racist” — so thank you for sharing that ignorance. I just so happen to use that term liberally — and very often in social media comments about the Australian government weasels in Canberra. As white and butt licking as you can get. So, is that racist as well? No, it is an opinion. Back to school, buddy and work out the difference. It is your statement ‘of fact’ without qualification that exhibits a fundamental issue.
      
      2. I think you are now telling us your story. Low relevance. Again, the woke issue is “offend” — perhaps the princess here thinks we are at an afternoon tea party? More like the start of WW3, imo. But yes, let’s be faux polite and feel superior for it.
      
      3 4. The response seems missing in action. But the ‘sahib’ gives the fixation signal. Next…
      
      5. Oh, dear … “appalling” — I’d better go off into the corner and cry because I offended you. Perhaps it would help if I informed you that I am researching the soon to be extinct elephants and other wildlife of Asia thanks to wild animal poaching mainly driven by Chinese medicines, quaint beliefs and magical theories. Perhaps get out of your mental pram and go do some research at the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species (https://www.iucnredlist.org). Do some google searches and add “China” and that should keep you going for a month or so. Running around with the latest bling and new Toyota do not make one modern in mind. Just go ask the Saudi Wahhabi plantation owners and see which century they are actually living in? But I guess that would be rude as well, eh? Only ‘polite’ society research allow here it seems. So, for your edification, I actually did go there in the m id-1990s and I did my on the ground field work.
      
      7. Well, I guess some 101-cybernetics is not easy to engage with when you have woke-glasses on. But I don’t have time to indulge with requisite ‘rude and offensive’ bits to give you some engagement handles. It’s called ‘horses for courses’ etc…
      
      8. “Those with wealth and a clear separate identity will always be such a target.” — well I almost detected a comment here but I fear it hides a deeper ‘signal’ of approval of such ‘privilege’… Given that I find the ‘tribe’ can never quite forego the opportunity to drop the hint … then I’ll let it pass through to the wicket keeper. It is not about being rich, it is about sharing in the bounty of a good life. Something closed ‘family’ inbreeding tends to promote. Enjoy your shekels, .. and maybe give a few away occasionally. Then maybe there would be less hostility — take for instance the Indonesian pogroms of 1963-5 and 1998 against the Chinese. Why? Well, my anecdotal visits to friends in Indonesia over a number of decades suggested the monopoly of food and retail stores (corner shops) and exclusiveness/squeezing helped with the programme. But I guess it must have been those Dutch ‘whiteys’ again. It is just ‘Wall St’ all the way down. But I suspect that metaphor will miss it’s mark as well, as much of the above did.
      
      9. (etc.) — nothing to bite on so dismissed. I respond accordingly.
      
      Thanks for responding in any case. But just in case you have not understood my message – I don’t give a flying “F…” what you think and FEEL about the ‘cruel’ words … nor, I suspect do the thinking Chinese patriots (one of whom was willing enough to make a good comment on this thread) about mine. If they deconstruct them accurately, they will have added insight to program their PR to the non-Chinese audience that I (appear) to speak from. It is a cultural Australian thing, … or was.
      
      Have a great day and please don’t cry too much, … nobody really cares, … that’s pathological postmodern paradox, … Lol.
- lyy on July 01, 2021 · at 1:19 pm EST/EDT
  
  @zhuge liang 21
  
  Why did you write “China” (中国) in Simplified but Zhuge Liang (諸葛亮) and Liu Bei (劉備) in Traditional?
  
  Are you really Chinese or pretending to be, employing hostile tone and inflammating people’s hearts? “Anglo poodle dogs”? It’s one thing to criticize the Anglos and another to use such offensive tone.
  
  “We” Chinese (I have ancestry) should continue seeking truth from facts and exhort the West to do the same, so that saner minds will prevail. We should not fall for jingoistic remarks which will only drive certain Western people angrier – as in fred123’s response, which has good points too – and make ourselves arrogant. The message you seem to be conveying is China is “incomprehensible” but that will lead to China’s isolation.
  
  Plus, Escobar has been bridging the divide for a while between East and West, so it’s just your rebuttal sounds very heavy-handed.
drb on July 01, 2021 · at 8:43 am EST/EDT

It will have to be seen how all this continuing economic expansion proceeds in the face of declining oil production. There will be probably 2/3 of current production in 2030 (worldwide). Will China do better than the West, particularly the US? Almost certainly yes, but there may be no growth by then.
- aloha on July 01, 2021 · at 9:09 am EST/EDT
  
  some say peak oil is a myth, anyhow, china got attacked again by usa, because they built more solar power plant in XinJiang and making the locals there rich, not genocided. Cant genocide the race there when their birthrate and population trippled, you know!
  
  bwbs
- vientito on July 01, 2021 · at 1:38 pm EST/EDT
  
  Do not worry about oil. It will be phased out. A lot of efforts are being deployed in that direction and I am quite optimistic that unless we self destroy ourselves it will all be fine and dandy
  - drb on July 01, 2021 · at 5:15 pm EST/EDT
    
    I beg to disagree with you and aloha. There is no viable substitute for oil, the alternatives being grossly energy inefficient. Of course there is still plentiful oil, but it does not matter because it is unreachable or it costs 100 barrels of oil to extract 100. I do expect a sharp decline of the West and a much slower decline of China, due to energy constraints. I also expect Russia’s standards of living to be the highest in the world by 2030 (because they have plentiful oil).
    - aloha on July 02, 2021 · at 12:34 am EST/EDT
      
      drb, ‘viable substitute’ is really a matter of price and the market, you agree? furthermore its subject to the ‘regime change’ effects – thus it comes down to the political system of the day and if they, well, include oil/energy as essential for living, like water, thus into its new classification, free of charge. maybe? giving you a visceral example – what if usa is invaded or broken up tomorrow, thus the dollars goes poof immediately and all the markets associated and depend and source from it, goes poof – which happens when collapse in a sudden overnight, who will still acknowledge the legitimacy of USA? where then will you get your oil/energy when the workers (mostly if not all foreign) dont want to get paid in USD?!
      
      anyway this topic is best to discuss w the russians here – i am just an outsider and as long as I can have light and water uninterrupted, I dont care who pays the bill, honestly. Thats my lot.
      
      about much slower decline of china – I point you to the multiple contracts signed w russia into the infinity future, for oil, w fixed price. Done!
      
      but I suspect a new form of energy, perhaps more correctly to say, an old form of energy, under the new multipolar world regime/system, will be allowed and build for ThePpl of the multipolar world, as you see, in the multipolar world, we, the individual are seens as real humans and w real human rights (under heaven/god – chinese and western and others, as in their chosing of god for each) as oppose to be a state/corporate-properties from brith w fake voting, they tell you its called ‘human right’ but its rigged and w some mucn fraud and in the end of the day your living standard purchasing power decline year over year.
      
      even though the horizon is getting darker than black, for many, esp in the west, for those who’s eyes are bright, may they see, beyond the event horizon.
      
      As I said few yrs back, russia will be officially the sole power on earth (its unofficial now but its already there just need to touch up abit w economy, or rather, release the fund/benefit to the russian ppl) me thinks.
      
      bwbs
      - drb on July 02, 2021 · at 2:34 am EST/EDT
        
        I wish you best of luck with your food supply, produced by solar powered tractors, aloha. As well as your mineral supply transported by hydrogen powered ships around the globe, and locally transported by a fleet of plentiful bio-diesel trucks. Of course the entire world production of rare earths will have to go into the production of tractors which anyway will not have the power to break ground. a lot of the energy production will have to go into the production of hydrogen, since I do not see under any circumstances how to get an energy gain better than 3:1.
Simon Chow on July 01, 2021 · at 10:51 am EST/EDT

Eric Li may not be entirely correct. Trump did change Obama’s policies. He discarded the TPP and dumped Obama Care. He clamped down on immigration and carried out a trade war with China instead of engaging China.

It’s still too early in the Biden Administration to conclude that Biden won’t change course on Trump’s policies. We need to wait until after the mid-term elections to get a clearer picture i.e. if WW3 does not break out by then.
- jürgen on July 01, 2021 · at 1:01 pm EST/EDT
  
  It was Obama and Hillary who initiated the “China pivot” in their first term, initiating that competition that Trump merely escalated. There has been no meaningful change in US foreign policy since the collapse of the USSR. Trump was certainly no renegade (in fact Obama’s SS codename was “Renegade”).
Robert Shule on July 01, 2021 · at 10:52 am EST/EDT

As China built their success on old technology, they also produced an order more pollution than anyone else.
The world is in a lot of trouble right now because of that. The environmental destruction cannot be maintained. Now that China achieved leadership in the world, let us look forward to them adjusting once again to create an economy that is not based on hydro-carbon fuels.
- jürgen on July 01, 2021 · at 4:35 pm EST/EDT
  
  And before that, it was over a century of ecological devastation committed by Western imperialists.
  
  However, in 2021, it is not Beijing but Washington that is actively sabotaging the global climate project: https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3139062/us-ban-chinas-xinjiang-solar-products-linked-alleged-forced
- d dan on July 01, 2021 · at 6:50 pm EST/EDT
  
  Robert Shule says: “As China built their success on old technology,”
  I guess you are one of those who still think China steal all the Western tech for her success. This is not true. But even assume it is, you should blame you own countries, not China.
  
  Robert Shule says: “they also produced an order more pollution than anyone else.”
  No, not on per-capita basis. Westerners pollute much more.
  
  Robert Shule says: “let us look forward to them adjusting once again to create an economy that is not based on hydro-carbon fuels.”
  
  You don’t have to “look forward”. They are already so:
  1. China is the country that grow the most forest (afforestation) in the world [1].
  2. China has the most installed solar photovoltaics in the world (more than the next 3 countries combined) [2].
  3. China is the largest producer of wind power in the world (more than the next 9 countries combined) [3].
  4. China is the largest hydropower producer in the world (more than the next 4 countries combined) [4].
  5. Above all, the trends continue for all the above, and the gap between China and others will keep growing.
  
  Ref:
  [1] https://ourworldindata.org/afforestation
  [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_by_country
  [3] https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/wind-power-by-country
  [4] https://blog.bizvibe.com/blog/uncategorized/top-hydropower-producing-countries
  - Robert Shule on July 02, 2021 · at 4:11 am EST/EDT
    
    Well, of course. China in this respect is doing a good thing. Now, can they close down their coal plants, get back to riding bicycles, and get the rest of the world to do the same….. Can China restrain the greed of the West, this crazy competition that the world is in, which is driving this whole pollution thing.
john on July 01, 2021 · at 3:15 pm EST/EDT

The rise of China as a manufacturing and construction megalith is at the expense of millions of European and American workers, who have lost their jobs due to capital investment by the “western” financial elite in an area which offers relatively cheap labour, and low health, safety and environmental standards.
- vientito on July 01, 2021 · at 10:39 pm EST/EDT
  
  That certainly explains how in these same countries most harbour negative view of China rising in national power. Not because of all the human right, pollution, freedom mumbo jumbo but because the people sorely lose out on their 6-week vacation on cruise liners, pension guarantee, a crie-de-coeur ability to afford an occasional donation to aids organizations for a “worthy” cause. Somehow, maybe I am cynical but I question deep down the sincerity of the folks who joined in the chorus “We are the world – we are the children – let us make a better place blah blah”. The bottom line, you ask me? That sentiment is pretty revealing for all to see here.
  - john on July 02, 2021 · at 2:02 am EST/EDT
    
    The “western” financial elite financed the Chinese “miracle”. It could not have happened without their input. They not only financed the Chinese miracle, they caused corrupt western politicians to dismantle the tariff system, to permit cheap Chinese goods to be sold into the very countries where people were losing their jobs to the Chinese. This seems to me breathtakingly unjust. Unfortunately the financial elite own the western media, bureaucracies and political leaders, who propagate on their behalf anti-Chinese memes regarding human rights, which are aimed at the powerful Chinese administration in an attempt to bend them to their will.
    - Anonymous on July 02, 2021 · at 8:13 pm EST/EDT
      
      The ‘western financial elite’ financed the Chinese miracle believing that the Chinese would remain the eternal ‘coolies’ pulling the rickshaws in which the elite sprawled.
- Dr. NG Maroudas on July 02, 2021 · at 9:26 am EST/EDT
  
  John, this “economic suicide of the West” was foreseen by the great French poet Paul Valery in the 1940s. He said, our only advantage is our technology and we are transferring it to the more numerous, more abstemious, more hard working and more socially cohesive half of the world. But who arranged this transfer? Some contributors above say, it was arranged by the same financial masters of the West who are now on track to become financial masters of the East. China is only the latest, most powerful arm of global capitalism.
Sarcophilus on July 02, 2021 · at 2:18 am EST/EDT

I believe there is something quite simple going on that explains some of the achievements of China as against the failures of the US. In China, if you want to be involved in politics you join the Communist Party; if you want to get rich you go into business; if you’re interested in the law, you become a lawyer, engineering, an engineer, education, a teacher, etc. In the US, if you want to be a politician you study law and once you are a politician you want to be in business; if you are a businessman you want to be in politics; if you are in the intelligence community you want to be in the media (preferably on CNN) (eg James Clapper); if you are in the media, you want to become an intelligence asset (see Project Mockingbird). In short, everybody in China is happy to be what they have chosen to be, to the best of their abilities. In the US, everybody wants to be something that they have no training or aptitude for, in the hope of making a few extra bucks. China is the meritocracy. The US is the land of the grift. Ladies and gentlemen, please place your bets.
JJ on July 02, 2021 · at 8:31 am EST/EDT

The west desparately by any means including falsehood of anything tries to extend the past onto the present.
China brings forward to us vision based on experience and perspective.
Lodewijk Langeweg on July 03, 2021 · at 6:38 am EST/EDT

So all this is mere baseless Western propaganda?

“How China Tracks Everyone”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLo3e1Pak-Y

“Exposing China’s Digital Dystopian Dictatorship | Foreign Correspondent”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eViswN602_k

While it sure looks like the West is advancing in the same direction with it’s cancel and censorship policies, and the so called “Great Reset: “You will own nothing, but you will be happy.”
Of course the Western oligarchs are directing and controlling it all and will also own it all.
(Example: Bill Gates already owning more farmland than any other man alive. And companies buying op swaths of neighborhoods from the home owners to turn all those houses into rental homes.)

Just wondering about the “social points” system in China. Do we want that also in the West? (Or is it fake news? Doesn’t look like it… unfortunately. Not to speak of North Korea.)
- Gerry on July 04, 2021 · at 11:32 am EST/EDT
  
  Read this Lodewijk Langeweg
  
  https://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2021/06/19/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it/
  
  https://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2021/06/19/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it/#comment-337346
  
  And understand well the unbelievable reality that governments now have in their hands to legislate morality by controlling your conscience and bread. Dostoevsky would be horrified that what he wrote concerning the Temptation of Christ is finding its fulfillment with this fakery of doing away with original sin for this instead. A true betrayal of everything called holy and true and Dostoevsky’s impostor king I do believe is about to arrive shortly now!
  
  “Why hast Thou come now to hinder us? For Thou hast come to hinder us, and Thou knowest that… We are working not with Thee but with him [Satan]… We took from him what Thou didst reject with scorn, that last gift he offered Thee, showing Thee all the kingdoms of the earth. We took from him Rome and the sword of Caesar, and proclaimed ourselves sole rulers of the earth… We shall triumph and shall be Caesars, and then we shall plan the universal happiness of man.”
  - Lodewijk Langeweg on July 06, 2021 · at 11:09 am EST/EDT
    
    Thank you much for the links to those articles about the NWO “Great Reset” plans, and the more spiritual or soul point of view of it all.
    
    May this serve as a reminder to not judge by appearances, for if we do, we are also condemned. Because judging someone else to be merely a human -and therefore far from perfect- we have judged ourselves likewise to be but a human, and that is a false accusation and condemnation.
    (And even today when the thought arises that God is our Being, hard accusing thoughts like painfully hitting stones are being thrown at us. by our still not awakened mind as well as that of our neighbors.
    
    As a parable about Who we are in truth, Jesus as a symbol for our Self, God in human appearance, and the Jews as our subconscious identities knowing that God is so much better and more than any human, but not aware yet that God was willing to experience being but human, as each one of us now:
    
    “Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
    “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
    ~John 10:32-33
    
    Or true Self also reminds God as the still unconscious Identity in us:
    
    “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.”
    ~Luke 23:34
    
    And that while being crucified by the very ones he asked pardon for as their defense lawyer remembering Who they really are, seeing beyond their evil appearances and behavior.
    That’s our true Self.
    
    In a humorous but yet meaningful serious way:
    
    “ET 101”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut3Jn-cANMk
    
    Our true Self reminding our Source in us, (as Jesus to the Father in this virtual reality like dream) that He and we who believe or know are “extra-terrestrial”:
    
    “They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.”
    ~John 17:16
    
    These are the messengers -angels- now called “extra terrestrials” as our Self once reminded our Source;
    
    “Your Mission to Save Humanity, Earth & the Universe”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tif4qGZ9EFU
    
    The “Great Reset” as it is understood Back Stage: a change from mere human consciousness to divine Self-awareness, the resurrection of the “dead” we are for as long as we don’t yet enjoy our real divine Self:
    
    “The Collective, Message to Lightworkers, June 25, 2021”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX3s5k4qHw8
    
    Who knows if I would also have wanted there to be a NWO to end all crime and the law of the jungle if I had suffered what George Busch senior experienced… see this video:
    
    “This island kept a dark secret until 2004 (*MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY*)”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB9-eS44A_8
    
    “1991 – Bush 41 Promotes a New World Order before Congress”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBIZcnmuolI
    
    Not that I approve of the worldly NWO. They are suffering of level confusion, confusing the divine with the human. Playing “God” as humans, with a very distorted and false interpretation of Who and How God really is.
    
    Yes God is our true Being, but we as humans are not God’s Being. Meaning that we are not really these humans, because God is our real Identity beyond the human appearances. And that as God by taking on this human experience we have all given our Life for the soul of everyone here. That also they would have our original divine joy.
    
    But if I see others as evil, ignoring to recognize Who their true Identity is beyond the human disguise, I share their erroneous degrading self-view, and psychically confirm it, thus strengthen that misidentification in them, so they keep on perpetuating their behavior based on that false self-image.
    So I pray that God may come to Himself and His Life in them, thus blessing them. As our Father loves us unconditionally, letting the sun rise and the needed rain fall on the good and the evil equally. (And that is another spiritual parable.)
    
    Compared to our original divine joy, experiencing being but a human is like letting yourself be tortured to death.
    The whole story of a God who made Himself human, knowing beforehand that it would entail a crucifixion and death is a parable pointing to Who we are beyond these appearances.
    And that goes for everyone, including the most evil humans. They play but a role to make us more aware of what we morally approve of, and what we morally disapprove of.
    What we morally like we are like to, and what we morally dislike we are dislike -unlike- to.
    
    Thus our conscience serves as a compass, its needle always pointing in the direction of Who and How we are in truth. Thank God.
Lodewijk Langeweg on July 03, 2021 · at 6:44 am EST/EDT

Copy/paste in YouTube:

“How China Tracks Everyone”

“Exposing China’s Digital Dystopian Dictatorship | Foreign Correspondent”

Looks like real to me. Just as the “Great Reset: You will own nothing but you will be happy.”
Or course the Western oligarchs will own it all, as so much of it they already do.
- Lodewijk Langeweg on July 04, 2021 · at 8:38 am EST/EDT
  
  PS:
  I’m so used to YouTube shadow banning my comments with URLs that I thought URLs were not allowed here either. (I had not seen my comment with the URLs yet.) So I wrote what I now always do on YouTube; “Copy/paste the title.”
v v Anand on July 04, 2021 · at 9:58 am EST/EDT

Tnx, Simon Chow for your exceptionally insightful comment on the impact of destabilisation on societies in the third world .
(a) I have felt this myself. As an Indian , I see where you’re coming from when you speak of “india’s incompetence was a boon to US supremacism”. However, I feel that the degree of destabilisation that the US is able to achieve is a variable and is inversely proportional to the distance from the US. With large countries , it destroys less. I have thought about the devastating impact that third arab-israeli war of 1967 had on UAR/Egypt , when their confidence was shattered. Particularly the middle class in Egypt turned to religion for consolation and believed in March 1968 in an apparition of virgin mary in a Cairo neighbourhood for some time. There was an article by an American Prof in the American UNiv of Cairo on this phenomenon . IN contrast, even India’s defeat at the hands of China in 1962 did not destroy the forward march of India in stable growth in so many areas. Size matters and, of course, the 1962 war was largely due to Western intrigues around the Dalkai Lama and collusion by pro-West Indian elite. China also withdrew promptly . Very different from Israel which kept up the humiliation and racist stereotyping of Arabs. And , following the India-China border war of 1962, India achieved a turnaround in a few years. In the immediate years after 1962, we went only downhill witha huge famine in 1965 , rescued only with American wheat for over a year. However, India did all the right things. Agricultural scientists tracked research all over the world and, by 1965 , started high yielding crop trials in Delhi. Tjhis coincided with completion of a canal network and Bhakra dam in Punjab and , incredibly, we became exporters of wheat by 1970/71 ! With that as backing, Mrs Gandhi was able to confront Nixon and Kissinger in 1971 , with Soviet support and liberated Bangladesh in December 1971 after the third Indo_Pak war. (One of the largest surrenders of soldiers, 90000 in all, took place then. In 1974, the soldiers were released back to Pakistan . Pakistan failed to fulfil the commitment to put on trial the 195 officers identified as suspects of war crimes in Bangladesh) That would have been impossible without the achievement of food sufficiency. It detracts from the professional merit of both Kissinger and ZhouEn Lai that they failed to grasp the changes in India and, absurdly thought that India remained a basketcase. From 1945 to 1971, almost every confrontation between Soviet-backed side and a western-backed side had ended in the western client prevailing, That changed with the 1971 victory of India,
(b) Even Pakistan is not as completely at loss because of its size. Given size and time, they have bben able to acquire a nuclear deterrent.
(c) Farid Zakaria has been speaking of the quality of the bourgeosie and its impact on outcomes in different countries. He believes that the German bourgeosie in 19th/early 20th century was less independent and enterprising than the Anglo-Saxon one and that was a factor that led to continued monarchic autocracy and ultimately, Hitler. I find that the Korean/Japanese/Overseas Chinese bourgeoisies are capable of producing quality products at low cost which they can sell any where in the world. I am finding less of that in India , particularly among the crony capitalists currently shoring up Modi. Those are into trade/speculation/real estate and Modi is hellbent on allowing them that even at the cost of destroying farmers. Hope he meets his nemesis soon. He has lost Bengal to Mamata Banerjee decisively and she has proved quite bold and independent. Now, if his party, the BJP can be dislodged in the UP State Assembly election coming January, then electoral politics itself may help to resolve India’s predicament.
(d) You also mentioned India’s social decadence. Believe me, there are solid movements over the last century and more rebelling against these especially in TamilNadu/Kerala/South/Bengal / Maharashtra (Western India). Still leaves out the ballast of the India Ship , being the Northern states. But there too the churn has been there,. To be hoped that it will turn things around.
- Simon Chow on July 04, 2021 · at 1:53 pm EST/EDT
  
  Thanks, v v Anand for your compliments and your equally insightful reply which updated me as to what is now happening in India.
  
  I have always considered India and China as brother nations, having lived together in peace and mutual respect for millennia. Buddhism, which helped filled a spiritual void in the Chinese soul and even Chinese martial arts, have came from India through very dedicated teachers.
  
  One thing that fascinated me is that India was able to feed its huge population (roughly the same as China now) from a land area about one-third the size of China. Surely India must have made tremendous scientific advances in agriculture since 1965.
  
  I have always prayed for India, especially now as it struggles to subdue the covid-19 virus and will certainly continue to do so. Your reply has provided me with more information with which to focus my prayers. May God richly bless India.
  - v v Anand on July 05, 2021 · at 10:53 am EST/EDT
    
    I am too moved by your reply to say anything now ! I am glad that I have been in the right and meaningful thought stream.
  - v v Anand on July 07, 2021 · at 10:11 am EST/EDT
    
    (a) Though land area of India is only a third of China’s, cultivable land extent is similar. Also, India is in monsoon Asia and almost entire country receives copious rain, being a peninsula with two converging coastlines, most places being fairly close to the sea. This is unlike China or Brazil . But China has the advantage of mighty rivers, very fertile land and mostly in temperate zone with less evaporation of water than India .
    
    (b) You are right about the miracle of feeding such a large population with its explosive growth. But , with higher female literacy over the eyars, growth is also decelerating. This aspect of comparative food sufficiency achievement is little recognised.
    
    (c) In sharp contrast to the British colonial times which saw repeated famines , most recently, death of 3 to 6 million , in 1943. Read “Churchill’s Secret War” by Madhusree Mukherjee to see direct culpability of Churchill for this.
laodan on July 08, 2021 · at 10:16 pm EST/EDT

Hum… me thinks that repetition leads to incantation :

— “To seek truth from facts, not from dogmas, whether from East or West”.

— “Past and future are totally intertwined in China; what was done in previous dynasties echoes in the future”.

— “China, historically, does represent continuous renewal and “rejuvenation”.

Pepe writes that to comment on the torrent of Western misinterpretations of China is a waste of time. But… :

— It is certainly right that it is “a waste of time” to repeat incantatory formulas.

— But in the present state of world affairs China’s other-worldliness, in Western perception, is going to get us all in deep trouble.

If intellectuals have a responsibility it is to propose explanations as to why the perception of “the other” is stuck in this kind of sheer other-worldliness. It is true that the West has no clue about the working of Chinese thought but I hasten to add that it is also true that the Chinese have no clue about the working of Western thought… We are faced with two parallel worlds. And these parallel worlds start to resent the other-worldliness of “the other”. This kind of situation never ends well.

Intellectuals have a responsibility to enlighten their societies about the working of things. And in the case of the perceptions, by both the West and China, about the other-worldliness of “the other” it is the role of the intellectuals, and of the artists, to explain why and how both sides are so blind to the working of the minds of the citizens of “the other” civilization. I have been searching for answers, about this black-hole for the last 30 years, but have encountered very little useful material. Francois Julien and Lin Yutan are the exceptions.

This other-worldliness resulted from different paths taken during the transition from “tribal-societies” to “power-societies”. And the incomprehensibility of the path taken by “the other” was further compounded by academic ignorance about the determinant role that the cultural continuum plays in societal evolution. Those who migt be interested by these subjects might want to check my last book The Continuum of the Cultural Field” which expands on these subjects.