What is the key difference between the U.S. and China?
They were born differently, almost totally opposite to each other! The U.S. was founded by/of/for the rich, whereas the PRC (People's Republic of China) was founded by/of/for the poor. In other words, the American Revolution was a bourgeois revolution, whereas the Chinese Communist Revolution was a proletarian revolution. Let me explain ...Exactly. As I have been saying, the US was founded on bourgeois (Lockean) liberalism in the Western sense of favoring owners of property of European (white) descent. The People's Republic of China was founded on Marxist-Leninist socialism "with Chinese characteristics." These views are fundamentally incompatible, just as East and West are fundamentally incompatible based on historical path-dependence.
The differences are civilizational — Western civilization, Chinese civilization, Indian civilization, Islamic civilization, Russky Mir, etc. In the West especially, this is further differentiate by nationalism. Much of the world is further divided by remnants of tribalism or actual tribalism.
One of the difficulties for Westerners is the fundamental assumption of a universal human nature, which Westerners identify with their own cognitive biases. While all may be identical as persons, e.g, equality of persons before the law, which is the basis of Western liberalism, all are unique as individuals and individuals are shaped by association and affiliation.
I don't always agree with Frank Li's position but his view is always interesting as a Chinese ex-pat that made it in the US and is now trying to bridge the systems by showing strengths and weaknesses.
econintesect.com
American Revolution vs. Chinese Revolution
Frank Li | Chinese ex-pat, Founder and President of W.E.I. (West-East International), a Chicago-based import & export company, B.E. from Zhejiang University (China) in 1982, M.E. from the University of Tokyo in 1985, and Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 1988, all in Electrical Engineering
2 comments:
We are individualistic, they are collective. In China it is very safe as crime is low, and walking about at night in your own is not dangerous, even in the poorer areas.
They put the family at the top of the hierarchy and the politicians are the servants of society.
Their whole culture seems to be the reverse of ours.
What did the Chinese boy call his dog?
Dinner.
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Completely different culture, and they don't pretend that an individual's life has any value in of itself. I could never live in China.
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