Progress on Point 15.13 Page 2
growth and palpable energy and optimism. Detractors believe China has driven up oilprices, manipulated its currency, stolen American jobs, oppressed its own citizens, andis preparing for an inevitable clash with the U.S.Some of America’s most prominent foreign affairs commentators are doing their best to make this clash happen. In a recent 8,000-word article in
The New Republic
,Robert Kagan of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace referred to China asan “autocracy” (or some formulation thereof) 71 times.
Kagan thus dedicated nearlyone percent of his words to defining China as a “one-man dictatorship.” Perhapsthinking Kagan too subtle, the American Enterprise Institute’s Michael Ledeen followedquickly with a high-profile article calling China the modern embodiment of “classicalfascism.”
Upping Kagan’s ante, Ledeen used more than one percent of his words tomake sure we understand the new talking point: the Chinese are “fascists” who “willpursue a confrontation with the West.” Finally, in case the point about “autocrats” and“fascists” still was not clear, conservative writer William Kristol compared ChinesePresident Hu Jintao to Iran’s crazed leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
A host of other sophisticated commentators have warned of China’s manydangers to itself and the world. In
The Coming China Wars
, Peter Navarro offers arelentless and exhaustive list of every dangerous and depressing factoid and trend inChinese economic, cultural, environmental, and military affairs.
Longtime China criticJames Mann, in
The China Fantasy
, rejects the “Soothing Scenario” view of the Chinaoptimists. But he does not necessarily adopt Gordon Chang’s view of a
Coming Crashof China
. Instead Mann outlines a “Third Scenario” in which Chinese economic growthcontinues but either the Communist Party or another “authoritarian” and “autocratic”body remains in power and continues severely to limit political freedoms.
On the other hand, French author Guy Sorman believes China’s internal problems are so grave thatthe West doesn’t have anything to fear, either economically or militarily, from this
Empire of Lies
.
Then there is the very long list of American politicians who use Chinaas a scapegoat for every perceived or real American economic problem, from the lossof manufacturing jobs and Main Street stores to the sub-prime housing bust andinflation.Of such a large and complex society as China, many true things can be said.Many stories, both encouraging and depressing, uplifting and outrageous, can be told.After much progress, China still falls short of our Western standards of human rights,free speech, intellectual property, and the rule of law. But if the U.S. and the world areto craft effective strategies – economic, political, and military – we must do our best tosee China as it is, not as a caricature or cartoon. This article is an attempt to tell theeconomic story of China’s rise since Deng Xiaoping’s historic “Reform and Opening Up”
3
Kagan, Robert. “The End of the End of History.”
The New Republic
. April 23. 2008.
4
Ledeen, Michael. “Beijing Embraces Classical Fascism.”
Far Eastern Economic Review
. May 2008.
5
Kristol, William. “Will Russia Get Away With It?”
The New York Times
. August 10, 2008.
6
Navarro, Peter.
The Coming China Wars
. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Financial Times Press,2007.
7
Mann, James.
The China Fantasy
. New York: Viking Penguin, 2007.
8
Sorman, Guy.
The Empire of Lies
. New York: Encounter Books, 2008.
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