On Sun, 20 Apr 2008 12:26:32 -0700 (PDT), Siythe <siythe@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
>> Go readhttp://fpc.org.uk/fsblob/244.pdf
>>
>> The Beijing Consensus by Joshua Cooper Ramo
>>
>> It is a seminal paper that made a big spalsh in academic and political
>> circles.
>>
>> Don't worry about China. It moves on momentum. The actions, hopes
>> and hates of individuals won't affect a thing.
>
>Cheers for that I'll give it a read.
>
>Wouldnt say I'm worried about China and I can appreciate the momentum
>arguement, but I cant say I think that China's reached the point where
>its growth is self sustaining. Individuals may not be able to do much
>but put enough of them together and, intentionaly or not, they can
>bugger up anything.
Read Ramo's paper first. It will be an excellent basis for any
further questions you may want to ask or seek debate on modern China.
China is too vast a canvas for any one person to grasp let alone
understand fully. I'll try my best to answer your questions. My
responses will be directed to a general audience because I seek to
persuade many not just you. So do forgive me should I seem not to
answer your specific points. My interests are modern China and where
her current paths will lead to in the near future. This inevitably
means reading the tea leaves for one cannot foretell the future. But
one can certainly make an educated guess based on current events and a
reading of history and human foibles.
China's long history is both the foundation on which to understand the
present and yet at the same time the burden that she must bear before
she can move in any direction. It is this interplay of forces along
with the new challenges from outside China that makes the China of
today so fascinating. China is a vast and ancient nation that is
undergoing a process of rejuvenation. What will eventually emerge may
well be the model on which the nations of the rest of the world will
govern themselves. This process will continue beyond your and my
lifetimes. Go to YouTube and seek randomly the scenes from China.
You will see the energy, the confidence, the modernizations, the
astoni****ng changes happening right before your very eyes. Poor
indeed is the (Western) man who still thinks China is the poor,
ignorant backward place that needs his patronizing attitude to
improve.
Western political thought seems to have run its course. What we have
left are mediocrities who care to undergo and survive the brutal
selection process that panders to special interest groups on issues
that have little strategic im****tance to their country(s). Or in the
case of the Bush administration, allowed itself to be hijacked by
alien interests that subverted US institutions to benefit that alien
country. Neither the US style Republic nor the Parlimentary system
seem to be capable of attracting men and women of vision and wisdom to
seek the highest office of their land. The system that forces leaders
to be constantly fighting the next election can't be good. That's
your (West's) problem. China is developing its own unique system of
governance. This will require a separate story.
>Individuals may not be able to do much
>>but put enough of them together and, intentionaly or not, they can
>>bugger up anything.
Which is exactly what happened in the Bush White House. China is well
aware of the dangers and has thus banned "Cultism" the dangerous
ac***ulation of power and the supreme exercise of power and favors by
one man. China's national policies are decided by consensus after
long debate. With everybody signed on everyone is responsible. China
has not "buggered up" in any national or international policy issue
since its founding. China had never once had to make a retraction or
reversal of a declared policy.
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