Chapter 18 1. The price of superstitious belief in Western discourse

A Russian scholar once said to me that in the late 1980s, the vast majority of Russia's intellectual and political elites identified with Western discourse.Some people even said openly that it doesn't matter if the United States turns the Soviet Union into a colony of the United States, because if the United States colonizes the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union can be transformed into the American political system and quickly become a developed and wealthy country.At that time, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was severely rigid in its thinking, its cadres were sluggish, its political system was lifeless, its economy was facing difficulties and crises, and people in the country were changing their minds.So the West first got the better of the Soviet Union psychologically.

I once read a memoir written by Anatoly Adamishin, a veteran Soviet diplomat.Adamisin was in charge of the human rights dialogue between the Soviet Union and the United States in the late Cold War, but while he was talking to the Americans, he felt that the Americans were right.He reported his thoughts to Gorbachev, the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and found that Gorbachev's views were highly consistent with his. He also believed that the Soviet Union could improve human rights through the help of the United States and quickly integrate into the mainstream of the West. civilization.There were various reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the lack of a convincing discourse system was undoubtedly one of the main reasons.However, the later result was something neither he nor Gorbachev expected: the Soviet economy was collapsing and the country was disintegrating.Gorbachev personally appealed to the United States to provide a loan of 20 billion U.S. dollars to help the Soviet Union tide over the difficulties, but this request was declined by the United States, and then the Soviet Union collapsed.However, the following Russian leaders were still superstitious about the West and promoted "shock therapy" under the guidance of American experts. The result was a rare economic and social catastrophe in human history, and Russia's corruption became unstoppable as a result. .

Some of our intellectual elites are a bit like Gorbachev and Adamisin, obsessed with Western political discourse, and still believe that Western standards represent the end of history.They think that what we have to do is to keep learning, approaching, and finally reaching Western standards.What these people need most is to free their minds from the rigid political discourse of the West.They hope that China can integrate into the so-called mainstream civilization represented by Western countries as soon as possible.If a mainstream civilization is formed with China's participation, such as the international legal system represented by the Charter of the United Nations, there is no problem.But if it is not formed with the participation of the Chinese, we must treat it with caution.Just look at the experience of the former Soviet Union: the Communist Party of the Soviet Union stepped down and the country was divided, but the West still did not let it go and continued to compress Russia's strategic space.No wonder the Russian ambassador to NATO simply got mad: NATO first wanted to borrow your garage, then your bedroom, and finally slept with your wife, so "we no longer tolerate it."His words are a bit corny, but reflect the mood of Russians towards the West today.Gorbachev is still favored in the West today, but his support rate in Russia has never exceeded 1%.

The disintegration process of Yugoslavia was similar.Under the impact of the wave of "democratization" promoted by the West, Yugoslavia's intellectual and political elites have completely accepted the political discourse of the West, naively thinking that as long as the so-called multi-party system, freedom of speech, and privatization are implemented, all the problems facing Yugoslavia will be solved.The result was a full-scale civil war, the rapid collapse of the country, the death of more than 200,000 people, and the displacement of millions, leading to the greatest human tragedy in Europe since World War II.In fact, this is not a question of whether the one-party system or the multi-party system is better, but that under the specific national conditions of Yugoslavia, promoting the political changes hoped by the West will inevitably lead to the disintegration of the country and war, but most of Yugoslavia’s intellectual and political None of the elite saw this at the time.

If a "civilized country" like China adopts the Western political model, its own advantages will disappear without a trace, and finally the whole country will collapse.Of course, many people in the world, including Tibetan independence forces, Xinjiang independence forces, Taiwan independence forces, and all anti-China forces in the West, are looking forward to this day every day.But they will be disappointed. The rise of China's "civilized country" will be the most exciting scene in the history of human modernization.Western civilization has its advantages and disadvantages, and the biggest disadvantage is probably the tendency to be self-centered. It lacks a bit of the Chinese concept of "harmony and the middle way". Some Westerners really think that human history will end in the Western model, and the West will absolutely dominate the world. the future of.How could the development of world history end up in the Western political model?After visiting more than 100 countries, I came to the conclusion that when non-western countries copy the Western model, they basically copy one and fail the other.In today's world, the efforts of different nations to explore their own development paths are just in the ascendant. Human beings' exploration and understanding of political systems are far from exhausted, and the West's own institutional reforms also have a long way to go.There are political system reasons behind one crisis after another that the Western world is experiencing today.

This reminds me of the Enlightenment in European history.The Enlightenment replaced obscurantism and absolutism with rationalism, which in general was a historical progression that drove the Industrial Revolution in the West.But with the passage of time, the West pushed its own political and economic model and its discourse to the absolute, forming a new kind of obscurantism and absolutism, and tried its best to sell it to the non-Western world. among.With the Iraq War and the "Color Revolution" in trouble, and with the financial tsunami exposing the shortcomings of the Western system, we can say that "Western discourse" is in a very bad position now. The era of "post-Western discourse" has begun.

The rise of China has touched many sensitive nerves in the world, and it is far beyond the interpretation ability of Western political discourse.In this great change, China plays a pivotal role.Chinese intellectuals can no longer take Western discourse as the leader, but should think independently, based on their own conscience, knowledge and patriotism, while absorbing the wisdom of the world, abandon Western obscurantism and absolutism, and jointly explore and construct "post-Westernism". Chinese discourse and strategy in the age of "discourse" have made their own unique contributions to the formation of a new world order.