Monday, September 29, 2014

Nathan Gardels — Xi Launches Cultural Counter-Revolution to Restore Confucianism as China's Ideology


Excerpts from Xi's speech.

5 comments:

Six said...

I greatly enjoyed the first paragraph!

Tom Hickey said...

Yes, that is the best one.

Let's see how Xi handles HK in light of it.

Detroit Dan said...

Fascinating. Xi is probably one of the most powerful men in the world. Perhaps he will save us from ourselves...

Members of the Communist Party of China are Marxists, who uphold the scientific theories of Marxism, and adhere to and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics. But Chinese communists are neither historical nihilists, nor cultural nihilists. We always believe that the basic principles of Marxism must be closely married to the concrete reality of China, and that we should approach traditional native culture and cultures of all countries in a scientific manner and arm ourselves with all outstanding cultural achievements humanity has created.

Practical socialism sounds good...

Tom Hickey said...

China is greatly misunderstood in the West. The Communist Party is essentially the recreation of the Mandarin class that ruled China under the Emperors. Instead of a single authoritarian person at the top, they have a committee. The president and prime minister have a lot of power but not as much concentrated power as POTUS, who is CEO ("the decider") and also commander in chief.

Comparing two countries without taking into account their history and culture is myopic but American strategist do it all the time in trying to export the American way regardless of context.

Detroit Dan said...

The U.S. system features rotating politicians at the top, with limited power to control the much more firmly established military-industrial-intelligence complex and financial interests that largely run the country. Perhaps power is more concentrated in China?