Chapter 14 4. Re-understanding China

Compared with the West, Chinese civilization has a tradition of "three people walking together, there must be my teacher".There is no such tradition in the West, but more of a tradition of "threesomes, I must be a teacher". However, with the rapid rise of China, there are more and more opinions about re-understanding China and even learning from China. On January 18, 2009, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari (Martti Ahtisaari) chaired a seminar on African crisis management in Brussels, proposing that helping Africa requires new thinking.His organization invited me to explain the Chinese development model.After I finished speaking, Ahtisaari said that what I had said had given the meeting some "vibration."In the evening, the Finnish ambassador to the EU hosted a small working dinner for the participants.Ahtisaari made a straight-forward speech. He said: "The solution to many problems in Africa requires new ideas. I thought about the content of Professor Zhang's speech this afternoon. I think China's political system may be summarized as follows: The Politburo of the CCP is like a board of directors, the general secretary is like the chairman, the prime minister is like the CEO, and the way China governs the country is very similar to the way a company is run.” He then asked me to respond.I said: "We have really thought about this issue, that is why no company elects its CEO through one person, one vote, because if it does so, the company will go bankrupt. Therefore, the design of the political system must consider the governance of the country. The core of democracy is to reflect The will of the people to achieve good political governance of the country, not democracy for the sake of democracy and elections for the sake of elections."

The senior British strategist Robert G. Cooper (Robert G. Cooper) sitting next to me was a little bit disapproving, and asked me: "Does China not accept the principle of 'Owned by the People, For the People' proposed by Lincoln?" I said: " We attach great importance to these principles, but we still have our own political and cultural inheritance. One core of this inheritance is the concept of "people's hearts", that is, "the one who wins the hearts of the people wins the world"; the other core is the concept of "selecting talents to appoint talents" That is to say, the governance of the country must rely on talents.” Ahtisaari continued: “I have visited China many times, and I also told the friends I met: China is a country with a long history of civilization, and China and the Soviet Union are different countries. The Chinese have their own ideas and methods in doing things, and we must be good at absorbing the wisdom of the Chinese.” Haggag, the former Egyptian ambassador to the United States present, said: “When I was young, I saw Zhou Enlai who came to visit me in Cairo. Prime Minister. His advice to the Egyptian leaders at that time is still fresh in my memory today." Savana, a senior scholar from the Central African Republic, said: "I also think that the key to governing a country is to have excellent leaders, and our biggest The biggest problem is that there are no good leaders. There is a joke in our country: Central Africa is rich in natural resources, which attracts the envy of all neighboring countries. They ask God: Why did you put the best things when you created the world I gave them all to Central Africa? I didn’t expect God to answer like this: Don’t worry, although I gave them resources, I didn’t give them good leaders.” Everyone laughed.In this way, a dinner party becomes a gathering of friends discussing a new understanding of China.

With the rise of China, there are more and more overseas articles on how to understand China. On November 13, 2009, the American "Time Magazine" published an article about the United States learning from China.The article said that "the ancient China with a history of 5,000 years still maintains vitality in the economic crisis, while the 'young' America appears old and weak, and the economy is mired in recession", and mentioned that today's China has five aspects that are worthy of the United States Learn.These five areas are: 1. Clarify the big development goals and invest in infrastructure construction with the power of the whole country.The article pointed out that "the U.S. government's finances are close to bankruptcy, and this year's budget deficit exceeds one trillion U.S. dollars."The United States "appears to be short-sighted and has no long-term strategy for investing in the future ... and even if the United States wants to engage in infrastructure construction, it will be opposed."The article quotes James McGregor, former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China: "The important thing we can learn from China is to define goals, formulate plans, and mobilize all forces to promote national development."

2. Invest in education and focus on the strategic training of talents.Although the problem of exam-oriented education in China is serious and the mechanism for producing leading and innovative talents is not smooth, this article notes the rapid development of basic education for China's overall workforce and the emphasis on mathematics and science education.The article said: "We need to do the same. China's children are already ahead of our children." 3. The culture of respecting the elderly and providing for the elderly makes Chinese society have a strong cohesion.In Chinese culture, "the model of parents nurturing their children, who in turn take care of their elderly parents, has been going on for thousands of years and has become a cultural tradition."The article mentioned that this tradition has brought many benefits to Chinese society: the elderly help to take care of their children, and the children also take care of their parents when they grow up, making Chinese families and society more cohesive and friendly.The article pointed out: The United States is an individualistic society, the elderly are very lonely, and the American nursing home system is now overwhelmed.

4. Healthy saving habits.The article proposes that Americans should learn from Chinese people's savings habits.The financial crisis has actually begun to change the savings habits of American residents.The U.S. household savings rate has risen from zero to around 4%, while the corresponding rate in China is over 20%.The article believes that personal financial stability enables China's national banking system to have stronger financial resources, which can ensure a large amount of funds needed for national construction, and funds can create employment opportunities. 5. People change their destiny through their own efforts.The article lamented that China's reform and opening up in the past 30 years has changed the fate of countless ordinary people, from peasant children to software engineers, from penniless to multi-millionaire examples abound.

Taking a closer look at these five aspects, they are actually the characteristics of China’s “civilized country”: Behind the national power to achieve great goals is the tradition of our strong government; emphasizing education is the core idea of ​​Chinese Confucianism; respecting the old and loving the young is the Chinese filial piety The continuation of culture; the habit of saving reflects the Chinese people’s diligent and thrifty way of life; striving to change their own destiny is the embodiment of the Chinese spirit of "Heaven is healthy, and a gentleman strives for self-improvement". Tradition.

The New York Times columnist Roger Cohen (Roger Cohen) also published an article titled "One-Party Democracy" on January 21, 2010, saying that he no longer mocks "One-Party Democracy" .He believes there are several reasons for this: First, Chinese people have a strong family concept.In China, "you can see the most natural relationship between grandparents and children; you can hear young women workers in factories in coastal cities talking about sending half their salaries home, maybe in rural Sichuan. Parents are waiting for the money to build a second floor."He admits he was shaken: "My money is also my family's money. This concept is new to me. After witnessing the atomic division of American society, I feel that the Chinese are cohesive, because in the United States, the elderly usually They will be 'abandoned' by their children and have to take care of themselves." The second is that China can concentrate on doing things today and can do big things without distraction.Third, China's economic prospects are bright.China's urbanization has just begun, "China plans to build 97 new airports and 83 subway systems in the next five years."Fourth, the "one-party democratic system" seems to be very contradictory, but seeing China's achievements today, "I will not laugh at this idea anymore. After all, 'harmony but difference' is an ancient idea in China, and countless Chinese families live every day. practicing this idea".He also said that in fact, the two-party election in the United States is also a "one-party democratic system" in the primary election stage.

When U.S. President Barack Obama visited China in December 2009, the British "Financial Times" published an interesting commentary titled "A Low-key Superpower." The article said: There is a coincidence in the itinerary of the US president. After the 3-hour meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, US President Barack Obama was arranged to visit the Forbidden City in Beijing. While visiting the Forbidden City in Beijing, Czech residents were celebrating the opening of the velvet Twentieth anniversary of the student protest of the Velvet Revolution.If the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the disintegration of Communist Party rule in Eastern Europe ushered in an unparalleled era of American dominance, then Obama’s first visit to China 20 years later can be said to mark another generation of global power politics revolution.At this moment, everything becomes indisputable: the world is moving towards a truly multipolar world.A decade from now, it will be the substance of the trip, not the tone, that will interest historians.Obama effectively invited the Chinese government to form a bi-national commission as a way to push for common ground on the world's biggest issues.No other country has received such an invitation and is unlikely to receive such treatment.Last week in Beijing, Obama formally acknowledged that in today's world, the United States can do very little without China's help.

Why is there so little that the US can do without China's help?This is because of the rapid growth of China's economy and comprehensive strength and its global influence.Today, the largest trading partner of Asian countries is China; Japan and South Korea are mainly driven by the Chinese market to get out of economic recession; China has also quickly replaced the United States as the largest trading partner of major Latin American countries (Brazil, Chile, etc.), which in turn has also driven Latin America. economic development. From 2008 to 2009, the trade volume between Latin America and other regions declined, but the trade volume with China increased rapidly.Chinese trade and investment in Africa are soaring. In 2010, Germany, an export-oriented economy, began to become the locomotive leading the recovery of Europe. During this period, China became the largest importer of German products, which promoted the first recovery of the German economy.The influence of a "civilized country" will be comprehensive: economics, politics, diplomacy, culture, military, etc. are all-encompassing.The West is re-understanding China, but this process has just begun.We also hope that the more new cognitions the better, and the more objective the better, we also encourage such efforts in the West, but we also understand the limitations of the West, so we don't have too many illusions.It is good for the West to understand China, but if they still hold on to their prejudices, there is nothing they can do about it.China will continue to walk its own path and move towards greater glory. A "civilized country" can have this confidence.