Happy 2023!
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New on the site this time, three snapshots of life in China since the end of covid-zero:

Tian Xuan and Xue Zhaofeng on price gouging;

V Shanshan (a screen name) on covid, grieving, and forced solidarity;

Sun Liping on where China’s experts went wrong.

For readers in the Washington D.C. area, I will be speaking at an event this coming Wednesday, January 18, together with Jude Blanchette and Nadège Rolland.  The event is organized by Tanner Greer of the Center for Strategic Translation, and is entitled:  "Politics Through Chinese Eyes: Reading China’s Establishment Intellectuals to Understand Chinese Politics.”

Details:  Holeman Lounge, National Press Club, 529 14th St NW, Washington D.C. 2:00-4:30.  You can register to attend here.
 

New on the site this time, two texts dealing with post-zero covid China, neither of which really acknowledges the change in policy.

Rao Yi, a neurobiologist and the president of Capital Medical University in Beijing, offers a surprisingly frank criticism of China’s public health and epidemic prevention and control systems, comparing these systems unfavorably to those of the United States, and suggesting that China has much work to do to prepare for the future epidemics coming down the pike.

Sun Liping writes about the post-pandemic economy, suggesting that lifting controls will not be enough, and reminding everyone that China is part of a dog-eat-dog capitalist world and must learn to be “resilient” in the face of crises.

In the next few weeks, various deadlines are colliding with holidays, so I may not update the site again until mid-January.  May you all have a safe, restful, and enjoyable holiday season!
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Enjoy!

What do you do if you are a Chinese establishment intellectual, journalist, or editor, and you CANNOT WRITE ABOUT the biggest protests in China since Tiananmen?  I read the tea leaves in today’s update :

Jin Guantao, “The Mentality of Many People Today Marks a Return to the 19th Century”; and

Luo Minmin, “The Epidemic Will Eventually End, But How Should We Deal with the Trauma of Social Depression?”
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Enjoy!|

​New on the site this time:
 
Deng Yuwen, “Xi Jinping’s Regime is the Twilight of Totalitarianism.”
 
Only one text this time, because I’ve been busy with other things, but the piece is well worth reading in the gloomy context of the recently concluded 20th Party Congress.
 
Also, I mentioned last time that Xiao Biao’s Self as Method, translated by yours truly, has just come out on Palgrave.  I don’t think I mentioned that it is Open Access, and hence free as a digital document.  Some 118,000 people have downloaded it so far.  Click here if you are interested.
 
Enjoy!

New on the site this time:

Wen Tiejun’s “The Modernization of the Chinese People,” a rousing essay originally published in 2000 and reprinted by two Chinese media outlets during the 20th Party Congress.  Wen’s message?  “China needs jobs!”

Also, a recent talk by Peking University economist Yao Yang on the resilience of China’s economy, with interesting things to say about semiconductors and covid policy.

​Enjoy!

New on the site this time:

Three texts that deal with American politics:  Immigration, the “perils of pluralism,” Samuel Huntington, Trump and Trumpism, why the Western right-wing sympathizes with Putin…

​Bao Gangsheng, Zhou Lian, Shi Zhan, and Liu Suli, "The Pitfalls of Pluralism—Challenges and Crises of Contemporary Politics” 

​Zhou Lian, “Who are America’s Children:  A Critique of Huntington’s Who Are We” 

Sun Liping, “A Subplot in the Overall World Context” 

I am also delighted to report that my translation of Xiang Biao and Wu Qi’s book, Self as Method:  Thinking through China and the World, has just been published by Palgrave MacMillan, with an introduction by yours truly.  Excerpts of the book are available here.

I might also mention that the Center for Advanced China Research asked for my thoughts about important side-issues in China we might be missing as the world focuses on the 20th Party Congress.  You can read my thoughts and those of other specialists here.

New on the site this time:

Two short propaganda pieces that perhaps convey something of the mood in some intellectual circles as the opening of the 20th Congress looms:

Zhang Weiwei, “Creating Chaos and Turmoil, the Myth of American Democracy is shattered—The United States Incites "Color Revolutions" and Endangers World Peace and Stability”, and

Chen Ping, “What’s Wrong with America’s Global Strategy?”

Also, a brief document by the sociologist and public intellectual Lü Dewen on the Tangshan beating incident that occurred in June,  sparking a huge Internet debate on sexual harassment and gendered violence in China:

Lü Dewen, “Why an ‘Ordinary’ Case Touched the Nerve of Society as a Whole: A Sociological Approach to Analysis—The Case of the Tangshan Beating Incident”.

I might mention that I am currently writing a book, based largely on materials on my site, on how Chinese establishment intellectuals view the United States, as a geopolitical competitor, as as model of democratic government (sometimes positive, sometimes negative), and consequently as a mirror for Chinese thinkers trying to understand China’s recent past and future trajectory as a rising superpower. Because of time constraints, contributions to my blog over the next few months may be shorter and fewer than in the past, as well as focused on plugging perceived holes in my data base or narrative.

New on the site this time:

​​Xie Maosong, “The Chinese Communist Party is a New Civilization.”  This is propaganda, of course, and pretty dismal propaganda at that, but it seems appropriate to see what the standard-bearers are saying as Xi Jinping approaches his third mandate.
 
Sun Liping, “If Sheep Do Not Want to Be Tied Up, it is Not Necessarily because They Want to do Something Bad,” a somewhat whimsical reflection on Sun’s having been forbidden to publish online for three months over the Spring and Summer.
 
Chen Jian, “How Should We Evaluate Gorbachev?” a short and surprisingly positive evaluation of the life and achievements of Mikhail Gorbachev on the occasion of his passing.
 
Enjoy!

New on the site this time:

Bai Tongdong, the New Confucian philosopher on “The Margins of Civilization—Reflections on the Historical Position of Chinese Civilization and the Progress of Human Civilization,” in which the author pushes back against the oft-repeated notion that Chinese civilization is “unique” or “uniquely continuous.”
 
Jiang Shigong, the prominent New Left thinker on “The Rise of a Great Power and the Revival of Civilization: The Taiwan Issue and the ‘Enduring War of Civilization.’”  Spoiler alert:  I worked on this text for several days, thinking it was recent, only to discover that it was originally published in 2005 (the editors noted that the text had been recycled, but did not supply the date of original publication).  The text is not without interest, but it is interesting for different reasons than had it been published after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Enjoy!
 

New on the site this time:

​More on Yao Yang, this time his “Confucian pragmatism.”
 
Yao Yang and Qin Zizhong, "An Analysis of Confucian Liberalism," which is a long, scholarly text, designed to show other intellectuals they know what they are talking about.
 
Yao Yang, “"Rebuilding China's Political Philosophy," a shorter text which covers some of the same themes, but which is more political and cast toward a more general audience.
 
Yao Yang, "The End of Ideology?", an earlier text, which precedes Yang’s Confucian turn, illustrating some of the thoughts that led him in that direction.