China`s World View - Demystifying China to Prevent Global Conflict

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Buy China`s World View - Demystifying China to Prevent Global Conflict by Li, David Daokui online on desertcart.ae at best prices. ✓ Fast and free shipping ✓ free returns ✓ cash on delivery available on eligible purchase. Review: Chinese economist, David Daokui Li, begins his book by recalling a 2011 debate in which he participated. He was paired with Niall Ferguson to support the claim that China would be the dominant world power in the 21st century against Henry Kissinger and Fareed Zakaria who argued the contrary. David Li’s side did not win. David claimed that his Confucius heritage would not countenance a victory over a senior expert, Kissinger, anyway. But David was also echoing the official Chinese Communist Party (CCP) talking point that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) did not want to be the world’s hegemon or sole superpower. It would have been both uncomfortable and contrary to CCP strategy for David to have strengthened his arguments and secured a debate victory. The above vignette reflects an approach and logic which informs the CCP policy strategy. It is one of many reasons why the CCP is misunderstood, underestimated and itself ignorant to the validity of its neighbors’ negative perceptions. David is a CCP apologist whose own arguments demonstrate where and how the CCP can be criticized. His explanations also demonstrate that he knows the hundreds of half and mostly-baked accusations against the CCP’s internal and foreign policies, mostly from the West. He provides short answers to each accusation, which, considering the mountains of variables, will likely feel lacking to most China watchers, but especially China hawks. The reader might come away with the perception that the CCP’s intransigence is built on a cherry-picked rationality varying of Confucius culture, a 2,000 year empire heritage, 100 years of humiliation (circa 1850-1950) and the Communist blood and struggle ever since; with the most recent addition of “Chinese characteristics” to everything from its democracy to economics to population controls and immigration. David has many solid conclusions. One is that the CCP intends to keep its hold on power. In 2011, David argued that the CCP democracy was “sophisticated”. He can safely admit to dangerous amounts of local corruption (because the senior CCP cadre did as well). The solution to corruption was more CCP oversight. Any other aspect of the so-called authoritarian system to include national exams, leaders as father figures and subjects as helpless children, “have been part of China for a millennium”. The system has traditional, cultural backing. How else was a government to manage population, profitability and global engagement considering the size of China’s surface area, its diversity and massive population? Since Xi Jinping took power, seventeen percent of senior officials have been discipled for corruption. Bribes had, for too long, circumvented the time-honored tradition of promotion by merit (pg. 92). David responds to skeptics’ questions on State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), the CCP claims in the South China Sea (SCS), media control, environmental challenges, population controls, selective historical sovereignty claims and China’s non-Communist Communism. The general answer to each accusation is that the threat is grossly overexaggerated and the CCP’s actions are either exactly what any other country would do or minor compared to historical overreach from current powers. According to David, twenty SOEs make 50% of all SOE profits. Those twenty SOEs are monopolies in commodities and services like: energy, construction, telecoms and banking (pg. 113). The rest of the SOEs must fight to survive like any other capital seeking competing business. Twice, David mentions the CCP’s controversial claims to the SCS but waves away the issue by stating that such claims are minor compared to super powers in history and the claims themselves were initiated by the Chinese Nationalists to begin with. As far as non-claims to former Chinese empire portions now possessed by Russia, David explains that the CCP created an arbitrary statute of limitations where only after a certain time period and under a specific political context does the CCP insist on some, not all historical claims to sovereign lands. And yes, David admits, there were at least two empire periods which sought conquest and expansion. But those days are long gone. On media, David does not deny the existence of media and social opinion control. But he credits VPNs and creative linguistic work arounds and coded language for allowing a more “open” social discourse. Approving of legal violations and necessary popular subversion of CCP is a strange way to dismiss the issue. It is, however, one of a dozen examples where David implies that only a China insider will ever understand the Chinese reality. What about the surveillance state? It makes everyone safer. It is difficult to bridge cultural, political and power divides when one side holds that only locals with direct personal knowledge can be true advocates or honest skeptics. This claim is compounded by a specific uniqueness of China’s population. Since the 1990s, 80% of Chinese students (Keyu Jin quotes 85%) have returned to China to work. While 500,000 Chinese students continue to study in the U.S., a pitiful few hundred U.S. students currently do so in China. The implications for current and future divides in mutual understanding are dangerous and staggering. In relation to media, population and global economic oversight, David spends a few pages describing the United Front Workers Department. David’s bland, matter-of-fact description avoids any suggestion of global message control or coercion but instead a proactive helping hand to assist CCP good business. The greater definition of Chinese means that the CCP increasingly meddles more in Taiwan’s diaspora, controlling Chinese messaging in foreign Chinese communities and seeks direct lines of control and influence in Chinese student groups, businesses and investments abroad. With this in mind, it could be hard to trust any Confucius Center (contrary to David’s assertion), no matter how much it claims to teach only language and culture. David is mostly right about the direct impact of China’s economy on US jobs. Whether jobs move to China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Kenya or South Africa, to keep prices low, it’s not China’s fault that manufacturing jobs don’t return to the U.S. It is the CCP’s responsibility, however, to respect intellectual property rights. Therefore, in the long term, the indirect influence on the U.S. high tech market will be influenced by China’s propensity to coerce and steal its way to technology superiority. But David doesn’t touch this one. David Li as a Chinese insider also knows the rules/restrictions on debate. Within the pages of his book, he names a few: -Do not criticize elders or CCP leaders -History is more important than the future -No interference from retirees and outsiders in incumbent government affairs unless asked -Legacy is everything -Rank at every level matters -The definition of “Chinese” is historical and expansive. It extends to a malleable definition of borders, heritage and even Chinese expats abroad. The “sophisticated” CCP government system has a number of unique characteristics. For instance, CCP party members help officials rule, not just during campaigns but in policy application at the village levels. CCP leader aspirants must hit career benchmarks in job responsibilities in order to climb the ladder unlike a liberal democratic system where an unknown can run for the senate or highest office based on business, military, academic or even celebrity status. But David also admits that the requirement to hit career benchmarks stunts creativity, just as the national annual exam system creates a mass of students with impressive, if quickly fleeting, memorization skills but limited critical thinking and a propensity to burn out. When it comes to the “Communist” title, David admits that the current CCP model is barely Communist at all. The party only keeps the name in order not to offend the millions since the beginning of the 20th century who fought, struggled, starved and died in its name. As China’s dubious world view may not be as the global hegemon, David Li adds a few more so-called Western benefits of China power. China’s economy is both healthy competitor and savior in a global crisis. China’s well-educated millions are science work horses pouring over data and experiments that require time and energy. China’s space station is on offer as the replacement for the U.S.-led aging international space station. And China’s contributions in soldiers and funds to UN peacekeeping missions are ensuring fewer would-be migrants and refugees move to Western Europe and North America. Since David Li knows the spoken and undeclared CCP red lines in criticism, it does enable him to level a few serious accusations against the Chinese model (without fearing reprisals). David claimed that the CCP-Confucius education system, does not teach students how to debate. David admits that the senior-most CCP leaders debate the nation’s most important policies behind closed doors. But David, claiming to have been witness to such secret sessions, implores the reader to believe that the debates are lively, informed and sage. Again in the summer of 2024, four China watchers debated the contemporary security environment during Aspen Institute’s Ideas event. The author of “The Boiling Moat” Matt Pottinger and fellow China hawk, Andrew Erickson discussed their view points with David Daokui Li, assisted by the next generation of China economist apologists, Keyu Jin. This time, Niall Ferguson served as moderator and at one point the Hoover Institution’s conservative voice pondered out loud whether he should be worried that he had not been banned from travel to China. The whole debate is worth a gander. Bans and tariffs are two ways, if still limited, to measure open societies and economies. At the same time, power, both corrupt and tone deaf, has a way of drowning out mutual understanding and justice. Debate is good. Understanding is better. A little critical introspection might be best for us all. Review: Amid loud outcries of Chinese Communist Party’s evil plots to dominate the world, this book gives a real portrait of what Chinese political system really is: its history, inner workings, dynamics, impact to society and people, and most importantly its priorities and long term intend. CCP and Chinese government are NOT what Western industrial/military/political leaders (mis)lead you to think. This book offered an interesting and very important counterpoint to many Western academia's and think tanks “conventional” wisdom on China. After reading this book you will realize those so called “independent” analyses are merely the reflective sound in an echo chamber. Reading this book is so refreshing and insightful. It will put your thinking into broader, more realistic, more comprehensive perspectives. In addition, I highly recommend Professor Jin Keyu’s book - The New China Playbook, as a companion reading. That book gives comprehensive review of Chinese economic system. With these two books, you will understand modern China, guaranteed!