‫الزلزال الصيني: نهضة دولة متحضرة

Zhang Weiwei's China Trilogy #2

by Weiwei Zhang, تشانغ ويوي

كاتب الكتاب تشانغ وي وي هو باحث و محدث صيني يطلق عليه المتحدث الغير رسمي للصين الكتاب موجه بالاصل الي القاريء الصيني و هذه النسخه مترجمه للعربيه عن النسخه الانجليزية التي قام الكاتب لاحقا باعداداها بحيث تكون موجهه للغرب ايضا ليس للصينين فقط
يتحدث الكتاب عن نهضة الصين في خلال 30 عام من حكم دينج شياو بينج و كيف تحولت الصين من اقتصاد متهالك و خدمات ضعيفه الي قوة اقتصاديه عظيمه من خلال منهجها الخاص دون الاعتماد علي حلول مستوردة
الكتاب ايضا يتعرض الي قوة الصين علي الارض من خلال نقض اسس اعداد بعد المقاييس العالميه التي تحمل في طياتها غبن في تسجيل الصين كقوة عظمي من خلال نقاط نسبيه غير مذكوره تحملها الصين و لايحمها الغرب مثل احتساب ملكيات الاشخاص ضمن القيمة الصافيه و مدي انتمائها الي سواء الطبقة الدنيا او الطبقه العليا

Genres: China, Politics, History, Nonfiction, Political Science

255 pages, Paperback

First published March 21, 2012

Reviews

[Brit Cheung · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second book of his China triology.

Seemingly Zhang was a fervent supporter for "Chinese Model" and he got confidence to say so. As an interpretor for Chinese leader Deng Xiao Ping in 1980s, he was privileged to have visited many if not most of the countries .He came, he saw,he pondered and he made comparisons. I always like the merits of Some Chinese scholars who made investigations before he spoke out. This is much better than Some home scholars as well as some western ones. Some just read books , be they right or wrong,rarely engaged real investigatiins and began to write books of their own! Weird!

An idea occurred to me about why some scholars always get wrong perceptions about China like“the inevitable collapse of China in year＊＊”. Oh,Jesus Christ! How many visits you have paid to China? How many talented Chinese scholars you have conversed with? How many cities you have ever been? How many Chinese books you have ever read? oh,I got it ,you just don't read original Chinese books especially the ancient ones because the Chinese language is damn hard !~ so you merely confined you focus to all the English versions and wrote your book! But what if the English books you read are wrong and prejudiced?

Some Chinese scholars, I mean some of them, are bilingual and inclusive and exceptionally diligent and truly talented and know your history and cultures even better than you and integrate Chinese and Western wisdom together and more importantly,they investigate and not standing on a higher moral ground!

I confess I am quite naive to write down the above words but PLZ forgive me I am just an innocent young girl in her less 20s. what you want me to say?

I used to read “National Interests” occasionally, from which I found numerous talented papers but aslo stumble on many acidulous reviews.
I think one benefit of being bilingual is that you can be a little more discriminating when reading.That's GREAT. A thousand miles journey would start from a single step and now I am on my step.…

An sparking part of the book is the author's debate with Francis Fukuyama on Chinese model, which you would not like to miss.

As always, I need to read more to ascertain if Mr Zhang's book make all sense. But his books are much better than some of others. If you don't think them a little bit political, You can read them because he said something many Chinese want to say.

Five Stars for the Triology!

乙未十二月二十一日（Dec.12.21）

[Severi Saaristo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book for learning about modern China and its politics. Zhang Weiwei is one of the leading intellectuals in China and he used to be an interpreter for Deng Xiaoping, so it is to be expected that he understands his own country well. However he has a very good understanding of the West as well and he makes very insightful comparisons between the Western model and the China model.

Zhang argues that indeed democracy is a universal value, but the Western liberal democratic system is not. For Chinese people the government gets its legitimacy from concretely and substantively working for the people instead of a procedural and abstract democracy in the form of multi-party system with one-person-one-vote. This focus on 'serving the people' is part of communism and even longer is the Confucian tradition of 'work diligently for the people or risk losing the mandate of heaven'. Indeed the Chinese government has been and is working tirelessly for the people, which we can see from China's incredible economic growth. China has lifted 853 million people out of poverty, but also during this greatest economic transformation in human history it has succeeded in maintaining stability and social harmony; something which is extremely important for the Chinese people who know from their long history, and even from quite recent history of the century of humiliation that chaos must be avoided and stability maintained if China wants to succeed in making life better for its people. It is also worth noting that China invented the national civil servant exam (The Keju System) where government officials are selected to govern based on merit rather than inheritance. This system was invented 1000 years ago in China; 700 years before the West adopted that system, so maybe the Chinese know better than we do. Another thing worth noting is that, for example when China makes its national development plans for the next five years there is discussion, debate and consultation on all levels of society and state as to what should be done. Then they have a 'trial and error' experimental approach. Do a reform somewhere first and if it works well there, then do it on a larger scale. If the reform doesn't work and people are against it, then it's not done anywhere else and it is ended. So PRACTICE and SUBSTANCE over form and procedure. However China of course does have free elections on the local level of the society and inside the party structure on different levels, but overall the leadership of the state and government by the CPC is not contested nor should it be in a country which is of continental size, with a fifth of the world's population and a long Confucian history of statecraft and polity. There is a combination of selection based on merit (for example look at Xi Jinping's political career and compare that to someone like Trump's) and elections.

The Chinese are very humble about their achievements in the last 72 years, but Zhang Weiwei does suggest that maybe now that China has learnt so much from the West, it could be useful for the West and the rest of the world to learn some things from China. What I have in mind in particular is the Confucian idea of 'harmony in diversity'.
Western liberalism (today in its final form of American universalism/exceptionalism) is unable to see difference and particular realities in the world. It completely ignores national and civilizational histories, traditions, cultures and customs of the different peoples and countries of the world and indeed as a global hegemon, the US has been hell-bent on a mission to overturn and annihilate the traditions and civilizations of the peoples of the world, imposing American culture, ideologies and notions of 'human rights' upon all peoples, regardless of particular conditions and histories. Liberalism tries to impose an abstract universal idealist form on reality, which has a basis in the individual, despite the very real and concrete differences in countries and civilizations that do not share this liberal understanding of the world and in fact oppose it. The Chinese idea of 'harmony in diversity' (and also Chinese Marxist humanism) offers something different than liberalism.
"The Chinese generally value harmony over confrontation and moderation over extremism, and the Confucian idea of “harmony in diversity” is often the goal of an ideal society, where there are “three harmonies”, i.e. a person’s internal harmony, harmony among humans and harmony between humans and nature. Behind these harmonies is the very Chinese concept of unity of opposites, i.e, yin and yang, or unity of female-related forces and male-related forces, as elaborated in the I Ching (Book of Changes) written over 2,000 years ago."
This has allowed different cultures and religions in China to co-exist and spared China from religious wars prevalent in European history. China has not really interfered in the political affairs of other countries nor has it tried to impose its system on others. In fact it has been an upstanding player in the international community and its rise has been peaceful where as the rise of the West was stained by colonialism, genocides, wars, slavery and plundering of other countries. China rejects adversarial politics in the belief that seeking common ground while reserving differences is crucial. In this way China offers an alternative where difference and diversity in the world is respected and that comes from a concrete unity forged on the basis of mutual respect and withdrawing all claims to any pretense of knowledge of the other's essence. What is truly in common, then arises authentically and on the basis of authentic mutual recognition.

[Carlos Martinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zhang Weiwei is one of the leading left voices in China, and this 2012 book presents perhaps the best summary of the 'China model' available in the English language.

Zhang discusses extensively the differences between Western and Chinese concepts of economic development, political organisation, human rights and legitimacy. Ultimately he is keen to prove that China wouldn't benefit from adopting the 'Western model' of politics and economics (as the West seems to expect, and as some intellectuals in China are demanding), and that China's success has been based on learning what is useful from other models (Soviet, East Asian developmental, and western capitalist) and integrating that with the specificities of China's situation, traditions and culture.

Zhang provides valuable responses to various critiques in relation to regional inequality, human rights, corruption and living standards. As a well-travelled public intellectual and former interpreter to Deng Xiaoping, Zhang combines deep insider knowledge with a broad understanding of global politics and culture. He knows China, and he knows how to explain China to non-Chinese audiences. His book is therefore essential reading for those wanting to understand modern China.

[Haplea · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short and clearly written book about the main causes of China exponential development: good governance selected on meritocracy, pragmatic and cautious economic reforms, a society keeping cultural traditions born of 5000 years of testing history, a strong government whose priority is improving the lives of people, the balanced marriage between state and market economy, and not the last, an original development path not following at all the Western democracy model for developing countries (which, as the author points out, often has let to crises or stagnation). By defining the main features of the Chinese model of development the author is comparing them one by one to those of the western democracy model, showing convincingly that the Chinese approach is superior, as shortly shown bellow.

The author considers that human rights must start with poverty eradication, providing food, health care, street safety and opportunities for all, in short with economic, social and cultural rights, as opposed to emphasizing a voting process like we have witnessed in Afghanistan to confirm a corrupt government (or to elect an incompetent G.W. Bush to eight years of American decline). He considers that a strong, effective and competent government to tackle frequent natural disasters, coordinate strategic development and implement reforms is a vital necessity for a state as vast and populous as China, as opposed to an unrestricted market economy dominating the state. And so on.

In the end, “the proof of the pudding“ stay in the results, and an increase of China’s GDP 18-fold times since 1979, unmatched not even close by any other country in the world, makes the author’s arguments very convincing.

To me, it is a necessary reading to understand the evolution of the global balance of power and maybe to rethink the best way to achieve sustained development.

[Yngve Skogstad]

I'm currently on this little assignment I've given myself, to properly understand the Chinese establishment outlook. I've read some books and pieces by Chinese authors before, but they all have been generally critical of post-Maoist China, and I realize they definitely belong to a marginal crowd. Both in China and abroad.

Zhang Weiwei however, is comfortably within the mainstream, a prominent political scientist who is proficient in English, who occasionally appears on some English language news shows, debates and so on. He knows better than most CPC bureaucrats how to bridge certain cultural barriers and speak to a Western audience.

«The China Wave» is not the triumphant celebration of the Chinese model that the title might lead you to think. It's actually quite humble in its assessment of China's achievements, deficiencies and path forward, trying to find a middle ground between those within China who believe it's still a poor country and needs to adopt the «Western model» and those who believe China reigns supreme (not a very huge crowd, admittedly, especially not in 2012 when this was published).

Zhang develops on his concept of China as a «Civilizational state» to account for why the country needs to take its own particular path of development. The Civilizational state is characterized by its immense population, territory, history and culture, as well as its unique language, politics, society and economy. As a theoretical concept I don't really see the great value of it. China is certainly unique, but so is every state in certain respects. If they weren't, the crude structural (IR) realists would actually be right. China's particular uniqueness is in my opinion a result of three out of the four «supers» (population, territory, history), while the four «uniques» (language, politics, society and economy) say basically nothing. Every nation-state purports to be unique in this sense, that is its founding mythos.

Zhang spends a great deal of the book arguing about certain economic indicators, most prominently GDP, a statistical measure that, if anything, mostly says something about the well-being of Capital. It gets kind of tiring and even weird when there are more pertinent statistics (for people's well-being) that also can be cited to prove his case. Going back to China's uniqueness, or rather lack thereof, I see in this, and so many other issues he covers, a great deal of similarities with the experience of Norway post-WWII. And generally the likeness between «Nordic model» and the «China model». But I'll wait to expand on this until I feel more qualified.

Even though there's lots of things I disagree with, and much I agree with as well, I found it really interesting to read someone addressing familiar subjects from a viewpoint that I'm not familiar with, and at times found difficult to place ideologically. In a time when geopolitical tensions are rising, and the Western mainstream press seizes every opportunity to make China appear demonic, I think more people should read books like this to get a sense of the Chinese perspective.

[Nishanth Bala · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cacophony of noises coming in from the mainstream media about China, especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic is shrill and in some instances ludicrous. Here in India , we have some over enthusiastic news reporters comically dressed up in military gear to report anything about China and calling for a war at the drop of a hat . So, it is in this context while looking for authentic voices from China that I came across professor Weiwei Zhang and also his call for a No cold war campaign.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAFU4...).

In this book ,Professor Zhang defends the route that china has taken in the last 3 decades (The book was originally published in 2102) by drawing on china's rich culture, tradition and civilization. While doing so, he doesn't turn into an apologist for some of the things that are not so good in china like I feared he may end up doing. He acknowledges the problems as well and presents a balanced view to the reader.

He goes on to explain how China's ascent in the global order is unusual in the sense that the nature of its rise has been largely peaceful, without resorting to wars against other countries as was the case with most western powers.

The author also presents an interesting contrast between Deng Xiaoping's methods and Mother Teresa's approach towards tackling poverty and human misery. While the former Chinese premier's more holistic approach lifted 400 million people out of dire poverty , Mother Teresa's individualistic approach ,having touched millions of people , also earning a noble peace prize along the way has had very little impact in the sense that the poverty levels in India has largely been more or less the same.

The last section of the book includes a debate that took place between the author and Francis 'The end of history' Fukuyuma in 2011. The debate covers a wide range of topics and is presented as a summary of the author's major arguments in the book.

Overall , the author’s arguments were convincing and fairly successful in drilling home the point that on matters relating to China , including human rights, its necessary to first ask the Chinese and not the Americans or the Europeans. He writes and I quote,

“Its mind boggling for me that many in the west always believe that they know China better than the Chinese, Africa better than the Africans, Russia better than the Russians”.

I think this is an important and timely read especially when the rhetoric against china and the calls for imposition of economic sanctions and hybrid war is reaching fever pitch around the world.

[Federico Arcuri · Rating 4 out of 5]

In "The China Wave" Zhang Weiwei describes China's rise as a global power, and explains why the "China model" is the best choice for China. Pervaded by a strong sense of cultural relativism, Zhang's main argument is that China's own nature doesn't allow the country to adopt a Western liberal political system. As a matter of fact, China is a modern country sui generis, it is a Civilizational State, whose features are: "a super-large population, a super-vast territory, super long traditions, super-rich culture, unique langauge, unique politics, unique economy." As a civilizational state, "China led the world for most of the time in the past 2000 years, started lagging behind the West from the 18th century, and then began to catch up with the West 3 decades ago."

The implications of such nature are significant: "Unity is first priority, plurality the condition of its existence ... The duty of the state is to protect its unity. The legitimacy of the state lies deep in Chinese history". In short, Zhang argues that the China model is more suitable for China because it is a civilizational state, creating its unique necessities, and unique political concepts:
---> Concept of "party": the CCP interprets its role as "the long tradition of a unified Confucian ruling entity, which represents or tries to represent the whole society, rather than a Western-style political party which openly represents group interests."
---> "Legitimacy": the concepts of "winning or losing the hearts and minds of the people" and "selection of talents based on meritocracy" constitute the Chinese ideal of 'Good Governance', which, in turn, determines the legitimacy of the ruling regime.
---> "Human Rights": "No country in the world can realize all human rights simultaneously, and there should be priorities in achieving Human Rights. China doesn't follow the Western preference and regards poverty eradication as a top-priority human right and hence has lifte 400 million people out of poverty. Poverty eradication is not considered part of Human Rights in much of the West, which even does not consider economic, social and cultural rights human rights. [...] There are Human Rights problems in the West. For instance, most Western countries have not yet practiced equal pay for equal work. Should other countries apply sanctions against these Western countries?". He then identifies 3 flaws of the Western concept of HR:
1. Struggles to keep a balance between civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights
2. Excessive Legalism
3. Cannot draw a precise line between individual and collective rights
4. Lacks a sense of sequence and priorities in exercising Human Rights.
---> "Democracy": "Democracy is a universal value, but the Western democratic system is not. The 2 things cannot be mixed up. The core value of democracy is to reflect the will of the people and achieve good governance. Whether it's one party, several or no parties, a system is good if it delivers good governance, and it is not good if it fails to provide good governance."

According to Zhang, the 8 winning features of the Chinese development model are:
1) Practice-based reasoning
2) A strong state
3) Prioritizing Stability
4) Primacy of people's Livelihood
5) Gradual Reform
6) Correct priorities and sequence
7) Mixed Economy
8) Opening up to the world
These 8 features constitute the essential "Chinese standards" that will enable different countries to lift their people from poverty. Zhang identifies 8 sources of these concepts from Chinese philosophy:
1) "Seeking Truth from Facts"
2) "Primacy of People's Livelihood"
3) "Holistic Thinking"
> To understand this point, I found quite funny to read Zhang's example, which compares Madre Teresa and Deng Xiaoping: "In terms of respecting individual values, I don't think there is a huge difference between China and the rest of the world. The end is the same, [...] but the difference lies in the means. [...] Deng Xiaopng's (holistic) approach has helped lift over 400 million Chinese individuals out of poverty and fulfilled their values and rights. [...] But in India, although the Madre Teresa approach touched and moved countless individuals and she was even awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the overall picture of poverty in India remains largely unchanged.
4) "Government as a Necessary Virtue"
5) "Good Governance"
6) Meritocracy - "Winning the Heart and Mind of the People"
7) "Selective Learning and Adaptation"
8) "Harmony and Meditation"


The End of The end of history
The last chapter is the most engaging, being dedicated to a heated debate between Francis Fukuyama and the author himself. Zhang argues that the rise of China, with its model of development and political discourse, represents the End of the End of history. He replies to Fukuyama's indictment of the China model by arguing against all his criticisms:
- lack of accountability: China's accountability is not only political, but also economic. In contrast, the greedy brokers that earned money through the GFC "have not been held accountable".
- lack of rule of law: Laws may be applied to most of the cases, but they need to follow "the core interest and conscience of Chinese society."
- 'Bad emperor' issue: China's top leadership is selected on merit, and the term office is strict, as leaders serve max 2 terms. Collective leadership is practiced.
- lack of participation in the decision-making process: the 5-year development plan is "the crystallization of 1000 of rounds of discussions and consultations at all levels of the Chinese state and society."

I think that reading this book is interesting to understand the Chinese justification of their current authoritarian system; it is quite thought-provoking in this sense, as it forces us to see the weaknesses of Western democracy and the strenghts of the China model. Confronting China should not be simply a reason of conflict, but also a source of motivation and energy to reform our own system and tie it to its original principles.

However, I will end by pointing out the weaknesses of Zhang's thesis. Firstly, this book was written before Xi Jinping removed the two-years term limit from the constitution, before his controvesial anticorruption campaign, before we realized what was happening in Xinjiang, before the expansion in the SCS, before Taiwan's Sunflower movement - which contradicts Zhang's description of Taiwan as a very weak demcoracy. All these events, in fact, seem to go against the author's triumphalism about the 'legality' of the China model, its meritocracy and its legitimacy. And they seem to confirm Fukuyama's criticism: "You need to distinguish political system from short-term policy. [...] You cannot make longterm judgement according to short-term performance. Japan was unstoppable in the late 1980s before the bursting of the property bubble. [...] Now I think if you look at economic growth from a longer-term perspective, what is the bigger challenge for China is the same for any economy."

[Adrian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Professor Zhang Wei-Wei offers a robust and well argued critique of China development, and it's impact for the world stage, as well as providing decent reasoning and defense of the China model.
Zhang Wei-Wei is perhaps the first academic I have read who finally offers a definition of the description of China as a civilizational state, by providing possible counterparts, were they to exist now.
Basically, if the Roman Empire had survived, Europe would be a civilizational state. If the Islamic Caliphate had remained in power throughout the Middle East, that would also be a civilizational state. Therefore, China is the only contiguous civilization to reach the modern world under the modern definition of a state.
Zhang Wei-Wei provides a decent defense of the PRC system that few others have provided, instead of focusing purely on economic growth as the CCP's mandate for power, he provides decent examples of how CCP rule is beneficial, such as the focus on the longterm outlook, rather than the short termism of most Western Politicians, and the meritocratic structure of the top brass.
Whatever one may say about speculated horse trading on the selection of the Politburo Standing Comittee, we at least have a situation where the 2 top men are PhD educated, and have held a variety of administrative and executive positions throughout China.
What did Barack Obama have? 4 years in the US Senate, 2 of which was effectively running an election campaign.
A real treat in this book is the debate with Dr Fukuyama, although this reader at least cannot discern a winner in that debate.
Many of my friends complain to me of criticism of China, but the best weapon against criticism is a good argument itself, and Zhang Wei-Wei's book is one of the best arguments one can find.

[Hibiscus · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you think you've had enough of American exceptionalism, I have bad news. Be prepared for the Chinese exceptionalism. Nothing imaginative really, just cherry-picking here and there, zooming in on the differences, zooming out the similarities. Once you get what you need, you declare it innate and predestined. And so it goes...

The Gentle Giant

China's past was peaceful. Consider this, when Buddhism fell in India, China didn't launch crusades to restore it, when the Ming fleet visited India, they didn't colonize it either. As a matter of fact, China has suffered more from conquerors than had conquered itself. If you're still puzzled how swaths of land from the Himalayas to Mongolia became China, well, ask the Mongols and Manchus.

China's present is peaceful, its economic rise was just as unprecedented as politically benign. It does not export its values, only manufactured goods.

China's future is also peaceful. It will restore its towering place among nations, as it always used to be.

Bigger than you think

Yes, it is, and here is why!
GDP comparisons are misleading because they are tied to the currency conversion rate and the yuan is known for being chronically devalued.
Per capita GDP is misleading too, because it says nothing of a country so big and populous as China. So is HDI. Actually, no single metric can describe a big nation. The author uses the average temperature allegory to explain this. It's fair to check the temperature before arriving in Singapore. Which temperature would you check when travelling to China? That in Beijing, Hong Kong, or maybe Lhasa? The author concludes that PPP is a better metric to measure economic power and urges the Chinese to develop newer and better ones.

Planet China

Zhang is a big lover of lists and catalogues. Here's one, the 4 supers & the 4 uniques.

Super population: more than the USA, Europe and Russia, together.

Super size: Google Maps at your service.

Super history: Rome could compete with China here, but Rome is long gone.

Super culture: 8 cuisines, 55 minorities, traditions, martial arts, you name it.

Unique language: undisrupted written tradition spanning millennia, rich in wisdom and lore.

Unique politics: a one-party system informed by the Confucian philosophy and enjoying the heavenly mandate, though the author interprets it in very humanist terms, that of people's silent favour.

Unique society: collectivist family-oriented people; unlike the Westerners, they will never fall prey to the atomising forces of modernity.

Unique economy: ever-growing socialist-market-capitalism. Don't bother putting a name on it. What's more important are the results, and they speak for themselves. Endless economic performance comparisons and details go here. All in favour of China.

Furthermore, the Chinese mentality is inductive rather than deductive. They go practice first, and let the theory catch up later. They prefer gradual changes, as they "cross the river by touching the stones".

Big nations have big problems, such as corruption, ecology, rising Gini index. But the author reassures, these are all due to rapid industrialization, and with due party leadership, everything is solvable.

1 + 1 > 2, Or walking on two legs (and nothing Orwellian)

Zhang uses this metaphor to describe the synergic effect of the two Chinas, the high-tech urban developed half and the still rural developing one. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, they cooperate, compete, and complete each other. This dynamic duo is responsible for the continuing Chinese economic miracle. While developed China enjoys a burgeoning middle class, a consumer society driving a huge internal market, the developing half keeps providing cheap labour and in the process catches up with the rest. Win-win.

It's smart and it's so by design. Namely, this was the grand strategy of Deng Xiaoping. The future is not evenly distributed, it's a gradient. The Chinese gradient starts from the free economic zones, into the coastal areas and projects deeper and deeper into the hinterland.

Refrain

If it was a symphony, this book would start with triangles and flutes, mildly acculturating the unaccustomed ear, strings would join along the way, the listener would certainly miss the first gong, but soon enough gong would be all he could hear, it's metallic vibrations still ringing in the ears long after the last page was turned. Alas, this isn't a symphony and a few of us can boast synaesthesia, but it surely has a refrain, and I even counted it for you.

153 times was mentioned "civilization", out of which
78 times "civilizational state"
35 - unique
25 - wisdom
23 - ancient
22 - continuous civilization|history|etc
18 - Super-large|vast|rich|long
14 - hundreds of states (in one)

Standing against Fukuyama

By far the most engaging section of the book. It reiterates all the main points of the theory, putting them into practice. An improvised snippet goes below.

Fukuyama: But how will you deal with a bad emperor?
Weiwei: We have solved that. No general secretary can hold the office more than twice!
Fukuyama: Is it enshrined in your constitution or state institutes?
Weiwei: Save us of that Western legalism. We move fast, no time for bureaucracy.

2023 newsfeed: "Xi Jinping begins historic third term as China's president". Oops. Well, I'm sure Weiwei has a lot to say about it, and it's all positive. That's his job.

[Luís Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read book for all those genuinely trying to understand China, the Chinese role in this world and the concept of civilizational state

Mister Zhang knows very well the 2 sides, the West and the Chinese sides, thus he explains better than anyone else the real differences between these 2 sides.

This book is highly valuable for both Chinese and Westerners.

(read em Beijing, China)

[N · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book might have been stunning if it had pretended the West did not exist, instead of defensively positioning everything it has to say in opposition to the all-knowing West. The parts that bring out how 2000-year old concepts are still living breathing elements of current political philosophy are gold. That India thinks it plays in the same league, let alone the same sport, as China would be pathologically deluded if it weren't so cynically disingenuous.

Notes
Like US Robber Barons and Meiji restoration bureaucratic collusion, corruption increases with pace of modernization because rule of law and state supervision cannot catch up with expansion of wealth.

Once consensus is reached, the China model acts more efficiently than the Western model - witness renewable energies.

Officially, foreign exchange accounts fo 60-70% of GDP, but this isn’t true , because foreign trade is calculate in USD, and rest of GDP in undervalued RMB. One way to accurately assess Chinese economic wealth is PPP, other is home ownership. Swiss ownership is 36%, Shanghai is 75%, though Swiss per capita GDP is 5X Shanghai. Life expectancy in major cities is higher than NYC.

China’s R&D investment increases 20% each year - industries bypass 3-4 stages of technological development and make leaps forward. Bullish estimates on China surpassing US GDP based on large-scale urbanization, industrial worker is 5X more productive than agricultural worker.

China as 2 regions: developed coastal regions of yangtze delta, pearl delta, beijing-tianjin, liaoning, shandong peninsulas, population 300M which leads developed countries in education, infra, life expectancy, wealth, housing but called quasi-developed because of environment and public civility; emerging economies, vast rural interior with new growth poles like Chongqing.

In India, when you ask a hotel porter if he belongs to the middle class, he will say yes, although he may live in a slum, but in Beijing or Shanghai, if you ask those young office workers sipping coffee in Starbucks if they are middle-class, their likely reply is “No, as I’ve got only one apartment, not two.”

Sun Bin, a great military strategist and descendant of Sun Tzu, counseled him to rearrange his horses in such a way that his best horse would compete with the second-best horse of his opponent, his second-best horse would compete with his opponent’s worst horse, and his worst horse would compete with his opponent’s best horse, and eventually General Tian Ji won the race two to one.

Developed world needs demand/labor partners in developing countries, so NAFTA for eg, but China’s 1+1>2 (developed coasts bound by civilization with emerging interior) - building a mutually complementary mechanism between the developed regions and the less developed regions in China. For instance, the Pudong district is much richer than China’s Guizhou province, but 51.4% of Pudong’s revenue goes to the central government, which in turn goes to help other parts of China, including Guizhou.

Republican period (1911-1949) of Kuomintang establishes upper structure of modern state like ministries, central bank, education but out of touch with grassroots. Mao establishes lower-structure of land reformation, mobilization of peasantry - numerical management. Deng’s reform and opening-up as middle-structure. 3-structure unprecedented modern state with unified govt, market, economy, education, law, defense, finance, taxation. Govt enjoys more authority despite no voting, because seen as custodian of the civilization, not state.

8 features: 4 Supers and 4 Uniques:
1. Population (100s of states amalgamated into one over centuries, unlike disunited India),
2. Territory;
3. Traditions - yushi jujin (keeping up with changing times) from yushi xiexin (keeping up with times) contained in I Ching, like taihe - building a harmonious society;
4. Culture (unity of heaven and earth, harmony in diversity), people of Beijing, Shanghai, Canton (Guangzhou) more different than British, French, German but under Confucian framework of unity in diversity;
5. Language - both ancient and living - brevity, imagery, embedded cultural meaning - anyone who masters 100 Chinese idioms learns its culture, like yurenweishan (to bear kind intentions towards others), zishiqili (to earn one’s salt), qinjianchijia (to be industrious and thrifty), ziqiangbuxi (to make unremitting efforts to improve oneself), haoxuebujuan (to be never tired of learning) and tongzhougongji (to pull together in times of trouble).
6 Unique Poltiics intiimately linked to classical principles of statesmanship, CPC not like western ‘Party’ but unified Confucian ruling entity with mandate of heaven, not representing group-interests - with 2 concepts: yurenweishan (to bear kind intentions towards others), zishiqili (to earn one’s salt), qinjianchijia (to be industrious and thrifty), ziqiangbuxi (to make unremitting efforts to improve oneself), haoxuebujuan (to be never tired of learning) and tongzhougongji (to pull together in times of trouble). Other concepts: “when one region is in trouble, all other regions will come to help” ( yifangyounan bafangzhiyuan) and “the whole country is treated as a single chessboard” ( quanguo yipanqi),
7. Unique Society - kinship bonds. Character for Nation is ‘State’ and ‘Family’ - filial piety makes cohesive society that is wary of the chaos (luan) from western style democratization in history.
8. Unique Economy - political economics linking development with governance, improving living standards and stability over profit maximization, combining western market economics (cannot meet demands of gen pop) with traditional humanistic economics (cannot compete on world stage).

Chinese characters commonly made up of various components, and the components often give a hint of the pronunciation and the meaning of the word, and they are structured in such a way that they often follow the principle of “seeking common ground while reserving differences”: so river, lake, sea, ocean all have character-component of water, silver, copper, iron, tin all have metal. Heidegger: we speak the language, the language speaks us.

yong wang zhi qian - “march forward courageously.”

The race for modernity has not blown apart the family unit. Parents are still taken care of. The social units are cohesive.

First-generation corruption (hidden commissions, smuggling, bribery) vs second-generation corruption (financial leverage, political collusion, lobbying, regulatory arbitrage, legal loopholes,

China’s unique development model not copying West or other socialist countries: (1) practice-based reasoning (run experiments and summarize experience rather than produce theories) (2) a strong disinterested, pro-development state based on Qin centralization, civil services, 3) stability against separatists in Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Taiwan (4) primacy of people’s livelihood, (5) gradual reform - crossing the river by feeling for stepping stones (6) correct priorities and sequence, (7) a mixed economy (tri-party system of central leadership, ministries and local govts vs Soviet 2-party of central + ministries (8) opening up to the outside world (open from Qin until 15th Century Ming with Admiral Zheng’s voyages, maritime ban by Ming after that) with Deng’s steps (first coast, then major rivers and borders, then hinterland). China was most prosperous when it was most open - Tang dynasty 618-907.

US Shocky Therapy in Russia seen as 3rd catastrophe (1st - Mongols, 2nd - Nazi invasion).

3 steps of Chinese development: attract foreign investors with domestic market; mobilizre 100,000 researchers to digest imported tech; develop even higher Chinese tech by combining strengths of outside and China.

From ‘more state and less private enterprise’ to ‘stronger state and stronger private enterprise’.

Democracy is a universal value, but the Western democratic system is not. Former is reflection of will of the people for good governance. Whether it is one party, many, or none, a good system provides good governance.

Most Chinese do not support abolition of capital punishment, shouldn’t this wish be respected? If the west holds human life as sacred, haven’t they sentenced 100,000 Iraqi civilians to death?

The color revolutions of Ukraine, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Haiti have ended in disaster.

Western inability to balance individual rights vs collective rights, and to properly sequence priorities of rights - like prioritizing political right of democracy in Africa over food, jobs, disease.

8 Chinese ideas (1) shishi qiushi (seeking truth from facts); (2) Minsheng weida (primacy of people’s livelihood) (3) Zhengti siwei (holistic thinking) that results in unwavering execution of a 70-year modernization plan - Deng has lifted 400M people out of poverty, meanwhile Mother Teresa got a Nobel Prize despite India’s poverty being unchanged; (4) Zhengfu shi biyaodeshan (government as necessary virtue) strong enlightened state. (5) liangzheng shanzhi (good governance) - china’s lijingtuzhi striving hard for human-centered governance breaking free of democracy vs autocracy to dichotomy to just good vs bad governance. (6) minxin xiangbei and xuanxian renneng (winning hearts and minds of people and meritocracy) - legitimacy from Mencius’ minxin (long-term interest of nation) different from minyi (public opinion that is fleeting) and meritocracy from Li Ji Book of Rites invention of Keju civil servant system. (7) Jianshou Bingshxu selective learning and application. (8) Hexie zhongdao harmony and moderation: Confucian 3 harmonies (internal, between humans, between humans and nature) yin yang from I Ching. Zhongdao’s balance from Doctrine of the Mean Zhong Yong.

After parallel independence in 1940s, China begins far behind India after millions of deaths from war, but now economy is 3X, life expectancy +10years, grain production 2X despite less arable land, infant mortality 3X lower, and comparing Shanghai vs Mumbai is a joke. Western support for India’s democracy keeps governance poor under a nonperforming political system. India corrupt with 1. Politicization of everything 2. Populism 3. Soft state hijacked by interest-groups 4. Short-term politics 5. Disunity that promotes wrangling

[Yeşil Zeytin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Should be read with a pinch of salt. Yet, useful in seeing how China perceives its position and status in the world.

[Hans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eye opener. Explains what social democratic Chinese politics entails.
Critical of western democracy. And justly so!
Is a little outdated.
I expect the last part of the trilogy will fill the gap.

[Kumiko · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author has some good points, but I think he does not see the whole picture on the debates on China. He only brings up the same arguments over and over again.

[Scipio Africanus · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic and even handed assessment of the "China Model," and the rise of a civilizational state. Book puts forward legitimate and interesting critiques of the western model citing many examples. One of the most compelling is the case of India which adopted the western model but has failed to reach the level of success China has in the same period of time. Book has provided me a greater understanding of how the Chinese view themselves and approach economics, governance, and culture. Everyone should read this book to gain a greater understanding of what is unfolding in the world currently.

[Ricardo · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an interesting and different perspective about the rise of China. Even though chauvinism is present all around the book, it offers and accurate depiction of the magnitude of the rise of China. Simultaneously, the chauvinistic approach of the author reflects a more assertive attitude from the Chinese elite. It's worth mentioning that some of the information provided by the author is questionable like the literacy rate of the US and the unification of India.

[Fangyi Guan · Rating 3 out of 5]

China wave:The rise of a civilizational state
注意到这本书，是因为我看了张维为的一些与国外学者对话，或是辩论的视频。印象比较深刻的就是他和福山对于西方民主制度的探讨，预测"阿拉伯之春"的冬天到来。
有三点，其思想在本书中也被详细阐述了，他经常拿来对比中国模式和西方民主;或者说，这三点是直接用来批判西方民主制度: 1) 该制度已经假定了人民是理性的(human beings are rational)，其后果，可见民粹主义兴起(populism);2)个人权利绝对的自由(right absolute freedom);3)程序化的民主制度(procedural democracy)，体制僵化。
而反观中国模式是:1)精英领导的(meritocracy), 中国领导人是受训的，有其丰富的从政经验; 2) 强调集体利益(collective responsibility); 3) 不断改革体制以求发展。
个人觉得作者，相对中肯得，叙述了许多中国模式利弊，基于中国国情。
但(有一点点小感受)，作者在介绍中国政治体制，或对比其他国家体制，其手法偏向于把他者的各种缺点集中，来凸显自身的优点或是缺陷。就拿，作者批判西方民主体制来说。可能，作者确实纠出了某些国家体制中的某些问题，但不能代表全体的他者。

[Aaron Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pragmatic reading of a China's rise in the 21st century. A great deal of details and anecdotes highlighting various component parts of the China model. Weiwei does run counter to marxism at points-going as far as abdicating class struggle and calling it a radical doctrine (in a derisive sense).

[João Paulo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muito bom para ter uma noção mais abrangente de algumas diferenças fundamentais do pensamento, cultura e sociedade chinesa, bem como uma análise esclarecedora da economia chinesa e as mudanças que o país passa desde 1978.

Ao final um debate com Fukuyama muito bom mesmo, valeu demais a leitura.

[Venkatesan Raghavan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic and frank. Weiwei weaves comparisons of democratic failures in the world very well subtly in the story

[Gabriel the Apostle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lao gan ma, bing qi ling.

[Hisham El-Halwagy · Rating 4 out of 5]

يمتاز الكتاب بتوضيح للتجربة الصينية في تحقيق النمو الاقتصادي السريع في خلال ٣ عقود و كان مسترسل للعرض بشكل نظري مفرط مبالغ فيه
الكتاب خالف توقعاتي لان كنت متخيل هاقراء عرض مفاهيم كتير و ارقام و إحصاءات لنجاح الصين في المجال الاقتصادي
مجملا الكتاب أثراني ثقافيا و ديه اول مره اقراء فيه عن الصين و سياستها و مستمتع بالحريه بغض النظر عن التطويل و الاعاده المبالغ فيها لنفس الأفكار

[!Tæmbuŝu]

KOBOBOOKS

[Faisal ElBeheiry · Rating 4 out of 5]

كتاب يحكي عن تجربة نهضة الصين و أنها إتبعت نموذج تنمية مختلف عن النموذج الغربي الذي وجة له الكاتب بعض الإنتقادات.