The China I Know

There is a must-read article on China in The New Republic.  This part echoes points I have made here many times before.

At home, if the government cannot have Western approval, it can make stone soup out of disapproval by playing the criticisms as an attack on the pride of the nation. This official attitude was well expressed in a book that Chen Guangcheng’s persecutor, Li Qun, published in 2004, well before the Olympic controversies had reached high pitch. During his studies at New Haven University in 2000, Li Qun did an internship in the office of Mayor John DeStefano Jr., and after his return he published a book unforgettably titled I Was a Mayor’s Assistant in America. He described his studies in America as a “political test” that confirmed his confidence in the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics. “Most Americans,” Li wrote, “are friendly to China, although they do not understand it very well. But a small group of politicians strike the banners of democracy and human rights to critique us constantly by their own standards, distort things, and interfere with our domestic affairs. Their real purpose is not to protect the so-called human rights but to use this pretext to influence and limit China’s healthy economic growth and to prevent China’s wealth and power from threatening their world hegemony.”

There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of Li’s sentiments, clichéd though they are, or the degree to which they represent the views of many Chinese inside China and out. Coming to the United States and seeing how things work here does not necessarily shake the faith of Chinese officials, or students, in their country’s way of doing things. Quite remarkably, and in general for the better, tens of thousands of Chinese students have returned home from the West to play their willing roles in academia, the media, business, and other sectors, accepting subordination to the ruling party and its national project.

Past commenters have mentioned the number of Chinese who have immigrated to America.  In response I’ve pointed out how many of these Chinese have chosen to repatriate themselves and move back here.  This article explains why. 

We in the west have this idea that “democracy = freedom.” This shows just how wrong we are in assuming that this definition is universally accepted.