陈凯一语： Kai Chen's Words: I now paste this article from liberal/leftist LA Times about how now American left views US-China relations. The mere fact they now coin the term "Civilization-State" to describe China shows the deterioration of American political culture as a freedom-loving principled existence. Political correctness is everywhere, dominating American thinking and behavior. The acceptance, accommodation and even appreciation of despotic cultures of other parts of the world in America precedes the forfeit of American responsibility as the leader of freedom in the world. By accepting the mode of development from China, even trying to emulate it, America is corrupting the core values upon which this great country was founded.
With regard to China, there is no such thing as "civilization-state" as the leftist author (Martin Jacques)of this article manufactured. There is only a communist "party-state" with a culture of state-slavery. There is no such thing as "clash of civilizations". There is only a clash of tyranny and liberty. There is no such thing as a collective "Chinese people". There are only those who love freedom and those who want to maintain despotism in China. If America will not or dare not to assume the leadership role in the world to combat the growing menace of Chinese despotism (and Islamic despotism for that matter), America will fail to live up to the meaning of its very existence, as enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, American Constitution and Emancipation Proclamation. The coming calamity with unprecedented tragic consequences will dwarf all the previous world tragedies/atrocities combined.
History, economy, cultural tradition, etc.., do not determine a person's/nation's destiny. Ideas, faith and ideologies (and the transformation of them) do. I, as someone from China and its cultural tradition, now having become a free man proves this point.
Make no mistake about it. Today, since 9/11/2001, freedom is retreating and tyranny is advancing. With liberal/leftist/socialist Obama administration in charge, tyranny/despotism around the world is emboldened to expand rapidly. Let's brace for a final conflict. --- Kai Chen
我现在将一个美国左翼（代表奥巴马观点的）作家的关于中美关系的文章贴在这里。 此作家发明的定义中国的新术词“（东方）文明政体”说明了美国左翼政治文化的新堕落。 在今天的美国，“政治正确病”已蔓延到美国政治文化的每一个角落。 接受、理解与纵容世界古老的各个专制文化作为“平等的不同”腐蚀了美国作为人类自由的先驱与领导的特殊地位/角色。 接受“中国式专制发展模式”甚至在美国仿效这种模式只说明美国的人们逐渐地淡忘了美国建国的原则与意义。
就中国而言，对我来说，根本就不存在什么像这个左翼作家所称的和编造的“（东方）文明政体”。 中国就是一个简单的、基于古典专制文化的、共产独裁的“党政”。 这世界上也根本就没有什么人造的“不同文明的冲突”。 这世界上只有简单而严酷的自由的个体与专制暴政的冲突。 这世界上根本就没有什么一锅酱的“中国人民”。 这世界上只有那些崇尚自由的人们（中国人在内）与维护专制暴政的人们。 这世界上根本就没有什么骗人的“中国/东方的文明”。 这世界上有的只是那个反人、反文明的、专制朝代恶性循环的、逐渐像艾滋病毒一样蔓延世界的中国式专制。 如果美国没有意愿与勇气承担起日趋艰巨的、领导世界自由的力量抵制/打击由中国与伊斯兰专制力量的攻击与挑战，美国将失去她立国的意义。 美国的“独立宣言”、“美国宪法”与“黑奴解放宣言”将淡漠成为废纸。 即将到来的由于美国的失职而导致的人类悲剧与暴行将是不可估量的与前所未有的。
历史、经济、文化背景等等（如马克思谬论所指）并不决定一个人/社会/国家的命运。 理念、信仰（及其转变）决定一个人/社会/国家的命运。 我本人，一个从专制文化中生长的人，通过自身的思考与努力并付出代价今天成为了一个自由人，证实了自由的可能与可贵。
有一点良知的人们都可以看到：自从“九一一”以后，世界自由的力量正在退却、世界专制的力量正加强攻势。 加上崇共、崇社、崇毛的对恶示软的奥巴马当局上台以后，邪恶的专制力量胆子一天天加大、力量一天天增强。 人们需要警觉并做好准备。 --- 陈凯
----------------------------------------------
"Understanding China"-Leftist Article 美左向中共与世界专制投降
Opinion/LA Times. 11/22/2009
Understanding China 理解中国
The West has gotten it wrong on China for decades -- even as it embraces a market economy, it has shunned Western-style freedoms. And its power is only growing.
By Martin Jacques
November 22, 2009
The dynamics of President Obama's trip to China were markedly different from those evident on visits made by President Clinton and President George W. Bush. This time the Chinese made clear that they were unwilling even to discuss issues such as human rights or free speech. Why? The relationship between the countries has changed: America feels weak and China strong in their bilateral ties. This is not a temporary shift that will reverse itself once the U.S. has escaped from its mountain of debt. Rather, it is the expression of a deep and progressive shift in the balance of power between the two nations, one that is giving the Chinese -- though studiously cautious in their approach -- a rising sense of self-confidence.
Nor should we be surprised by the Chinese response. They may have appeared more conciliatory on previous visits by American leaders, but that was largely decorative. The Chinese have a powerful sense of their identity and worth. They have never behaved toward the West in a supplicant manner, for reasons Westerners persistently fail to understand or grasp.
Ever since the Nixon-Mao rapprochement, and through the various iterations of the Sino-American relationship over the subsequent almost four decades, there has been an overriding belief in the West that eventually China would become like us: that, for example, a market economy would lead to democratization and that a free media was inevitable. This hubristic outlook is deeply flawed, but it still prevails, albeit with small cracks of self-doubt starting to appear.
The issue here is much deeper than Western-style democracy, a free media or human rights. China is simply not like the West and never will be. There has been an underlying assumption that the process of modernization would inevitably lead to Westernization; yet modernization is not just shaped by markets, competition and technology but by history and culture. And Chinese history and culture are very different from that of any Western nation-state.
If we want to understand China, this must be our starting point.
The West's failure to understand the Chinese has repeatedly undermined its ability to anticipate their behavior. Again and again, our predictions and beliefsabout China have proved wrong: that the Chinese Communist Party would fall after 1989, that the country would divide, that its economic growth could not be sustained, that its growth figures were greatly exaggerated, that China was not sincere about its offer of "one country two systems" at the time of the hand-over of Hong Kong from Britain -- and, of course, that it would steadily Westernize. We have a long track record of getting China wrong. (Kai Chen: May be the author is wrong again, as his predecessors were. When the Berlin Wall collapsed, only 3% of Berliners predicted it.)
The fundamental reason for our inability to accurately predict China's future is our failure to understand its past. Although China has described itself as a nation-state for the last century, it is in essence a civilization-state. The longest continually existing polity in the world, it dates to 221 BC and the victory of the Qin. Unlike Western nation-states, China's sense of identity comes from its long history as a civilization-state.
Of course, there are many civilizations -- Western civilization is one example -- but China is the only civilization-state. It is defined by its extraordinarily long history and also its huge geographic and demographic scale and diversity. The implications are profound: Unity is its first priority, plurality the condition of its existence (which is why China could offer Hong Kong "one country two systems," a formula alien to a nation-state).
The Chinese state enjoys a very different kind of relationship with society compared with the Western state. It enjoys much greater natural authority, legitimacy and respect, even though not a single vote is cast for the government. The reason is that the state is seen by the Chinese as the guardian, custodian and embodiment of their civilization. The duty of the state is to protect its unity. The legitimacy of the state therefore lies deep in Chinese history. This is utterly different from how the state is seen in Western societies. (Kai Chen: Indeed the Chinese see the state as God and Savior, but innately each Chinese is an individual with God-given yearning for freedom and happiness. I myself is a proof.)
If we are to understand China, we must move beyond the compass of Western reality and experience and the body of concepts that has grown up to explain that history. We find this extremely difficult. For 200 years the West, first in the shape of Europe and then the United States, has dominated the world and has not been required to understand others or The Other. If need be it could always bully the latter into submission.
The emergence of China as a global power marks the end of that era. (Kai Chen: It would be a tragedy if China dominates the world. I bet during Cold War, many in the West accepted a permanent presence of USSR in the world.) We now have to deal with The Other -- in the form of China -- on increasingly equal terms.
China, moreover, is possessed, like the West, with its own form of universalism (Kai Chen: "Universal Despotism" indeed). It long believed that it was "the land under heaven," the center of the world, superior to all other cultures. That sense of self, which has engendered a powerful self-confidence, has been persistently evident over the last 40 years, but with China's rise, it is becoming more apparent as the country's sense of achievement and restoration gains pace. Or to put it another way, when the presidents of China and the United States meet in Beijing in 2019, with the Chinese economy fast approaching the size of the American economy, we can be sure that the Chinese sense of hubris will be far stronger than in 2009 (Kai Chen: If China's despotism can last that long is a big question mark.).
But long before that, we need to try and understand what China is and how it behaves. If we don't, then relations between China and the United States will never move beyond the polite and the formal -- and that will be a bad omen for the future relationship between the two countries. (Kai Chen: Is there a polite and formal relation between liberty and tyranny?!)
Martin Jacques is the author of "When China Rules the World: the End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order."
No comments:
Post a Comment