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THOMAS REINHART's avatar

Kudos for you very smart and thought-provoking essay! I have a quibble though: In my view, freedom of thought and speech is of a different quality than all other values. Without freedom of thought, progress becomes impossible, and eternal stagnation is the consequence.

Imagine two countries, one a well and rationally organized place without free speech, and the other racked by inequality and bigotry, but enjoying free speech. Which one will be better after a hundred years? Or in other words, why did the industrial revolution happen first in England and Holland, but not in France?

I believe, the obsession with "unification of thought" played a part in the decline of old China, and is having a pernicious effect on today's China.

Of course that means that people like you are destined to play an ever more important role: Chinese people loving and understanding their country, but having the freedom to develop new ideas and hopefully (eventually) helping their country to escape from the "stability" aka stagnation imposed by Mr. Xi and his friends. A bit like the Chinese revolutionaries in Japan during the late Qing... Good luck and regards!

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Denis Simon's avatar

Wow and Double Wow. This essay clearly reflects the fact that you have thought very deeply about Daly’s initial question. I like your reference to the U.S. Constitution and cultural diversity and religious diversity. During our recent lunch, I mentioned the American penchant to simplify good vs evil. This is best embodied in the cowboy movies we watched as kids: bad guys wore black hats and the good guys wore white hats. No gray hats! Many of our political leaders have used this simplistic model in their characterization of post-1949 China as the black hats — manifested in the many many evil deeds practiced by the CCP leadership. Bottom line is that after reading your essay, I am more convinced than ever that we need a much more nuanced approach towards China. The “us versus them” framework is inadequate to capture the numerous complexities that distinguish our two countries from one another. Our behavior has exacerbated levels of xenophobia in China that we have rarely seen in the post-Mao era. I commend you for taking the time to reveal how unfortunate it is that few of our current and even past leaders have taken the time to reflect more deeply on why the bilateral relationship has soured. The desire for easy answers has not proven very helpful if avoidance of conflict is truly our ultimate goal. Keep on thinking more and writing more about these important issues. Your effort is not wasted…. the broad array of U.S. Sinologists need to read your essay as do our policymakers dealing with Chinese affairs. My hope is not to get everyone to agree with you, but rather to get more people to move away from the simplistic notion that the PRC leadership can do nothing good.

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