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Monday, February 14, 2022

West can’t believe nor accept China’s progress, A letter from an Egyptian


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China: Rise of an Asian giant | Insight | Full Episode


China’s space station: From no flush toilets to building its own space station within 40 years.

 
 AS an Egyptian, I have been studying China intensely for the past year — its government, society, history, and transformation.
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I’ve spoken to hundreds of Chinese and China-haters and heard everything they had to say. By now I’ve learned roughly as much about China as anyone can learn without knowing the language or living in the country, and I’ve reached my conclusion. China attracts a lot of haters, know-nothings and armchair experts.
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The truth is that China is the greatest country on the face of the earth. It makes all other countries look insignificant and contemptible. It is the most brilliant, most industrious, most ambitious, most educated, meritocratic and technocratic, most modern, sophisticated, and civilised, and best-governed by far.
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It is the first nonwhite, non-Western country to reach this status since the 1600s. The determination of this country is indescribable. Supernatural. There is no force that can stop it from accomplishing anything it wants to do.
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Forty years ago a flush toilet in China was a luxury. Today it has its own Space Station. This is a tiny example of China’s capabilities.
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It doesn’t matter who we are. Egyptians, Syrians, Pakistanis, Indians, Africans, even Americans. Next to the Chinese, we are pathetic. We can’t do what they do. We would have a mountain, an Everest of changes to make, and we would whine and bicker and fail at every one of them. China’s story since the 1980s has been one of an almost divine metamorphosis.
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Next to China the entire Western world from Alaska to New Zealand has stagnated. Next to China the entire developing world from Brazil to Madagascar has progressed only at a crawl.
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China is the mother of all gargantuan bullet trains. Every day it manages to create something new and astonishing. And unlike the United States, unlike the British Empire, unlike the French, Dutch, Germans, Spanish, Portuguese or any other Western nation that had its turn at being a superpower in the past four centuries, China doesn’t need to run anybody over or take something from somebody else, to rise majestically.
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China is also standing up to the West all by herself. The West can’t believe their four-hundred-year-old global supremacy is being challenged. They hoped that the more China developed, the more it would submit to their influence, interests, and leadership. That didn’t happen. So now they will do anything possible, short of a nuclear war, to make China end.
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Their goal is to destroy this country. That’s why, although the United States has killed several million people and turned several regions of the earth into hellscapes.
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China is the worst fear of our planet’s Western masters. They want you to despise and dread a country that’s done nothing to you, that hasn’t invaded anyone, bombed or sanctioned anyone, that hasn’t overthrown any foreign government, or used its military on anything since 1979.
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China is the only major country in the nonwhite developing world, to stand up to the West. To look it in the eye when challenged or threatened.
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The Global South are simply Western puppets who submitted long ago. Even the most powerful ones. Saudi Arabia, Brazil, India.
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The 1500s—1000s BC were Egypt’s time. Antiquity belonged to the Greeks and Romans. The 1700s belonged to France, and the 1800s to Britain. From 1945 to the present, the world has been under American overlordship. And they call it the Pax Americana but there isn’t much Pax in it.
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There’s plenty of Pax if you’re in Europe or Australia. But the Middle East? Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Iran and Yemen in the past 20 years. Latin America? They’ve destroyed that part of the world beyond any hope of recovery. Africa? It’s only been spared because of disinterest. The US sees Africa as nothing. The whole West does.
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But in the twenty-first century, we are witnessing the rise of China. We are decades away from China becoming the greatest power on earth. This will be China’s time, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Attack China all you want, curse her and monger rumours and hysteria — but the truth is that none of your accusations are backed up by evidence. The Western press is under the thumb of Western governments that want to stay on top of the world for eternity. And the truth is that China is not affected by the noise and maneuvers of her enemies.
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For her first thirty years, from 1949 to 1979, China was basically blockaded and isolated economically and politically by the West. It didn’t even have a seat in the UN General Assembly. And it was dirt-poor in those days, barely a speck of the global economy, a tiny fraction of Japan’s or Germany’s GDP — not even able to prevent famine. And it still didn’t submit to pressure or take any orders. Why on earth would it do that now?
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China will be the next global power. There’s nothing that can be done about that. The first stage is that its economy only needs to grow at 4.7 percent per year to become the world’s largest by 2035. That means the usual, historical bare-minimum of 6 percent is already overkill. The US can build as many bases as it wants, slap as many sanctions as it wants, recognise whatever bogus genocides it wants. That’s what it’s been doing all along. Has any of it made a difference? China can adapt to any situation. It took China a mere ten years to go from being barred by the US Congress from participating in the “International” Space Station, to building its own Space Station from zero.
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See, the US has an $800-billion war budget, 800 military bases, 13,000 aircraft, 500 warships, 6,000 nukes — but it doesn’t have what China has: invincible national resolve. It takes the US about 5 years to renovate a bridge, and it takes China 43 hours. There’s simply no competing with that.
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China doesn’t need to be a military superpower or empire. That was never part of the plan. US troops, God bless their souls, will continue sitting in their bases, scratching their balls, costing their government $800 billion a year to do nothing. Meanwhile, China will continue to actually develop.
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That’s the part of the equation that America totally missed, because it has barely developed since Reagan’s day. China is a better place to live today than at any time in its previous 5,000 years; Americans saw their highest standard of living in the 1960s and those days will never come back.
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So yes, China will be the next global power, and the Chinese are vastly superior to us in every way. This is a fact that everyone can attack but that nobody can change, like the theory of evolution.
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Look at you silly buggers, talking about China like it’s going to be the next Nazi Germany. Even many Middle Easterners I know fit in this foolish category. Did you notice when the US invaded or overthrew the governments of 20 countries in the past 32 years (my lifetime)? Did you even know? You think just because you’re ready to forget all that because of BeyoncĂ© and Game of Thrones and Snapchat and other US cultural exports, it didn’t happen.
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The US is feeding me terror-bytes about Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, Tiananmen Square, Great Leap Forward! I don’t see any dead bodies, I can’t show you one invasion or one example of Chinese regime change, I can’t even find Hong Kong on a map or tell you one factual detail about Tiananmen Square, but the US State Department and all its media are telling me CHINA BAD!
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Aren’t you at least curious to see what a world with a nonwhite, non-Western leader might look like, after 400 years? Because God knows that leader won’t be us. It won’t be Brazil or Africa, or the Middle East or India or Indonesia or Nigeria or Pakistan. We’re a mess.
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China was a mess too. But we remain a mess many decades after we achieved independence, and the Chinese went their own way, disentangled their mess and created their destiny. We’re not made of what the Chinese are made of.
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I see China as hope. Hope that a colonised, brutalised, primitive and humiliated country, can rise above its past — refuse to be weak any longer — rebuild itself from nothing, with iron resolve, and become too strong to be overrun by the West again!
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Hope that a nonwhite, non-Western country can look deep within itself and find its own solutions to its problems — proving that (foolishly) trusting the West to guide us isn’t necessary! Proof that if we can do what the Chinese did, there will be no limits for us.
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Imagine a world where the US, France, Britain, Australia, are no more important than Uzbekistan or Paraguay.
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A world where the World Court might be headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, the World Bank in New Delhi, the United Nations in Jakarta, the IMF in Cairo.
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A world liberated from the US banking system and the dollar as its reserve currency, so that Washington can no longer tell 200 other countries who they can and can’t trade with.
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A world where an American can be tried for war crimes at the Hague, not just an Iraqi or Liberian or Serb.
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A world where we don’t hear about a non-Western-made vaccine and grunt to ourselves, Oh, it must be poison. A world where we don’t have to immigrate to the same countries that turned ours into hellholes, to work as sales clerks or taxi drivers, or even if we’re brilliantly employed — to drain our brains from our homelands in the best of cases, and use them to reinforce Western riches and supremacy in exchange for a fat paycheck, instead of using them to make our own countries semi-habitable.
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When I hear that China has built its own Space Station, landed a rover on Mars, ended extreme poverty, built the Earth’s biggest city, dam, telescope, 5G network, highway, air purifier, or whatever the heck it is that will come tomorrow — I feel the same pride as if I were Chinese.
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It’s not happening for all of us, but it’s happening for one of us and that’s a start. There’s got to be such a thing as developing-country nationalism — a common nationalism for all the countries that were colonised and plundered, and remain economically and politically captured by their ex-rulers.
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A nationalism for the Global South. We are too divided, too brainwashed, too fooled and weak — most of us still worship the countries that destroyed us, are non-Western on the outside and Western on the inside, are hating and fearing and buying all the lies about the only one of us that’s made it, and are leaving our countries in droves to let them burn while we “make a better life for ourselves” in the West.
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Do you want to live on a Western-dominated Earth for another 400 years? If you do, keep doing what you’re doing. But I don’t!
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You know what’ll happen for all of us if America’s sick wishes come true and its global thuggery does make China collapse? Nothing. Eternal repetition of the status quo. More enslavement, hijacking of our resources and weak corrupt governments, neo-colonialism, invasion, regime change, sanctions, MISERY.
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Haven’t we already seen this? Libya, Cuba, Venezuela, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, the Soviet Union. Rest in peace. Even FRANCE and JAPAN for God’s sake. What does the United States do when any other country says NO, or simply becomes too powerful, too good at honest competition?
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Japan was a Western-style democracy crawling with US troops, with a US-authored pacifist constitution and almost no military and an extremely pro-US government and populace, and it STILL got crushed when it looked like it would become the #1 economy in the 80s.
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I remember 10–15 years ago when China was still relatively poor and impotent, and Bush and Obama would talk about China as sweetly as swans. Obama happily had dinner with Xi Jinping in late 2015, called China a crucial partner of the United States, and said the US welcomed China’s rise; it was all horseshit. Today Biden, who was there with Obama in late 2015 as Vice-President, angrily rebukes a reporter who merely said that Biden and Xi were old friends.
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America has taken off its mask.
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China made it, it wasn’t supposed to make it, so now it must die. What a difference 5 years can make. China went from “crucial partner” to “number one threat.”
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We should be helping and supporting China to keep climbing to the top, and giving her some serious solidarity as she withstands the new Cold War of Western imperialism. It’s been a long 400 years. China is the first non-Western country to even come close to reaching a status of ultimate global importance. She is akin to the the first member of an impoverished family to go to university. That is our family of nations.
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And when China gets to the top, believe me, it won’t be a repeat of the French, British, or American Empire. Not a single developing country on earth will be worse-off because of China becoming #1. There will be something good in this for all of us, so let’s wake up.
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- Ismail Bashmori is an Egyptian China watcher

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Sunday, February 13, 2022

Understanding South Korea’s Generation MZ

How Generation MZ in S. Korea view jobs and the workplace

 

The luxe life: Shoppers with tents and portable chairs lining up outside a Chanel store in Seoul in December. With homes beyond the reach of millennials and Gen Z-ers, many are spending their money on luxuries, helping to make South Korea the seventh largest market for luxury brand items globally. — Bloomberg

 

LATELY, the foreign press has featured some intriguing articles on South Korea’s “Generation MZ,” a term that encompasses millennials and Generation Z, or roughly those born from the 1980s into the 2010s.

For example, Bloomberg reported on young people in South Korea in their 20s and 30s standing in a long line at 5am to buy famous brands at a department store. The New York Times, too, in an article called “The new political cry in South Korea: ‘Out with men haters’”, covers another side of the MZ generation: the rise of anti-feminist sentiment among many Korean young men.
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In the eyes of the foreign press, these behaviours of South Korea’s younger generations must look weird. However, despite some obvious problems, there is a grain of reason in some of their unusual behaviours. Many Korean men born between the early 1980s and early 2000s cannot find a decent job today, and this harsh reality has left them deeply disillusioned and frustrated. They are angry at their society for not providing them with a happy, stable life.
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In that sense, they are the Angry Generation. They are angry because their unemployment status has also forced them to give up vital things in life, such as getting married, having children, owning a home and a myriad of other things. That is why MSN called them “South Korea’s Give-Up Generation”. Korea’s Generation MZ also calls itself the Lost Generation.
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Since they cannot afford a home in their lifetimes due to skyrocketing real estate prices, Generation MZ finds pleasure elsewhere; they buy luxury cars or merchandise from a famous brand instead. It is no wonder, therefore, that they are willing to stand in a long line early in the morning to purchase luxury items or drive a Mercedes or BMW. Ostensibly, their attitude looks like snobbery, and yet deep down, there is sadness and anger in their desperate, extravagant spending of money.
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As for young Korean men’s anti-feminist attitudes, there are reasons behind that, too. They believe that feminism belongs to the older generation, who discriminated against women in a male chauvinist society. Assuming there is no longer real discrimination against women in South Korean society, these young men in their 20s think that it is unfair and absurd to give advantages to young women in the name of feminism.
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Moreover, they are angry because they think women take away all available jobs while men still have to fulfil mandatory military duty for about one-and-a-half years. That is why Korean young men think that it is only fair that Korean women, too, have compulsory military duty, just like men.
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Of course, young Korean women do not agree with them. Women argue that there is still discrimination against women at workplaces in salaries and wages. Besides, if a woman becomes pregnant, she feels the invisible pressure to resign, unless she works at a government institution.
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Korean women are also disappointed in Korean men because they think it is unmanly for them to demand that women serve in the army under the guise of gender equality.
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Yet despite these profound gender differences, both men and women of Generation MZ can agree that their government has failed to provide them with happy, secure lives.
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Young Koreans detest the older politicians’ self-righteousness and the illusion that they represent justice. Young people in Korea are perfectly aware that what the officials call “justice” is arbitrary and thus even dictators can claim that they represent justice, just as Michel Foucault perceived it many years ago.
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Young Koreans also hate the hypocrisy of the older generation that preaches “fairness,” while they themselves are relishing the sweetness of privileges and unfair advantages.
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Korea’s Generation MZ also does not approve of the older generation’s servile attitude towards bully nations.
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Young people in Korea think that Korean politicians should say “No!” to their neighbouring countries when they are overbearing and rude.
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Young Koreans are confident and proud because they live in an advanced, affluent country.
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To a certain extent, Korea’s Generation MZ resembles America’s Soft Generation in the 1960s.
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American parents who had gone through the Great Depression in the 1930s raised their children as sheltered kids who were consequently vulnerable to violence and adversity.
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The parents of South Korea’s Generation MZ, who had gone through the IMF (International Monetary Fund) financial crisis, also raised their children as sheltered kids with over-protection and excessive care.
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South Korea’s Generation MZ may look selfish, but they value individual freedom, fairness and transparency. They detest group-oriented, communal impositions and dogmatic political ideologies.
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Moreover, they are computer- savvy kids who live with social media every day. Recently, a Reuters story contained the headline, “South Korea‘s Gen MZ leads rush into the ‘metaverse’”.
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They are the future of South Korea. In the upcoming presidential election, Generation MZ should choose wisely so they can have a bright future.

 – The Korea Herald/Asia News Network
By Kim Seong-kon, a professor emeritus of English at Seoul National University and a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College, the United States.
 

Saturday, February 12, 2022

American Bible versus Chinese Dao Dejing, What is the real crisis of global order?

 

Modern capitalism has deep religion roots 

 

Andrew Sheng: My view is that the real crisis with the liberal democratic order is not whether autocracy is on the rise, but whether the liberal order is fit for purpose in a world threatened with existential climate change. After more than 40 years of liberal order, the world has had the highest social inequality, accelerating climate change, rising seas and natural disasters and failing governance everywhere.

 

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WRITING in Foreign Affairs magazine, Professors Alexander Cooley and Daniel Nexon argue that the core crisis lies in illiberalism on the rise. Namely, the contest of the century is not simply US-China, but liberal democracy versus autocracy.
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This week, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken warned the recent Quad meeting in Australia that “China wants to dominate the world.”
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On the other side, the Russians claim that it is the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation that is expanding eastwards, whilst China accuses the United States of Cold War mentality in trying to contain China and stir up trouble over Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
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The American foreign policy community has always lamented that despite opening up economically, the Chinese did not convert politically to the liberal democratic model, thus justifying American sanctions against China.
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By not converting to American ideals, the next step is to contain these “revisionist” powers.
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This “convert or contain” approach smacks of fundamentalist Christian beliefs to either evangelise or defeat the non-believers.
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Modern capitalism has deep religious roots.
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German sociologist Max Weber was first to pronounce that the Spirit of Capitalism came from the Protestant Ethic.
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Even though capitalism existed in ancient China, India and other cultures, its modern ethos was based on Protestant Christianity that revolted against the authority of the Roman Catholic Church and 16th century Catholic monarchs.
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The Puritan streak in American capitalism favoured hard work and acquisition of assets, not because it was greed, but because it was done for the glory of God.
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Capitalism greed is, therefore, not only rational and modern, but founded on religious ethics.
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To be rich is to be glorious (for God). Forget about the fact that wealth may have been founded on exploitation of other human beings and mother nature.
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International relations theorist Alexander Wendt argued that modern social science (including international relations) is founded on the key assumptions of materialism (reality is physical); reductionism (complexity can be reduced to simplicity); things behave in law-like ways (determinism); there is cause and effect (mechanism); and there exists objective truth (perfect objectivity).
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These assumptions are all embedded in American foreign policy of rational liberal democracy ideals, rule-based order; beliefs in individual human rights and in God that are enshrined in the US Constitution and coins – In God we Trust.
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In contrast, Chinese statecraft is founded on the 10th century BC I Ching (Book of Changes) and the 4th century BC Dao Dejing (the Book of the Way (Dao) and Virtue or De). Unlike the Bible, the most translated book in the world, which begins with “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”, the Dao (the second most translated book) begins with “The Dao that can be expressed is not the eternal Dao”.
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In other words, the Dao challenges almost all the assumptions that lie in modern social science: that no rule is forever, rights are balanced with obligations, good is embedded with evil, and nothing can be taken for granted.
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For Christians, God is perfect and man’s job is to seek perfection. According to the Dao, there is no perfection except constant change.
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Life evolves through the interaction of complexity and its parts. The individual (a rational man in economics with rights) is part of a collective and therefore has obligations to society and nature.
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There is no absolute good or perfect information, since Daoists believe that good and evil exist together in all beings and everything is relative, changing in cycles of time.
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China’s dual circulation policy can easily be understood as coming from Daoist philosophy.
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One example of the contradiction between liberal democrats and autocracy is the issue of legitimacy, often without self-reflection on their own record.
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The latest Edelman Trust Barometer 2022 showed that based on samples taken across 27 countries, China has the highest trust amongst the general population (index of 83), compared with the United States (43) and the UK (44), with the US Trust Index declining 10 points since 2017.
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Thus, the crisis in global order is not one of ideology, but very fundamental worldviews as to whether the world is unipolar and mono-culture, or poly-centric and where diverse systems and beliefs can co-exist and co-create with each other.
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My view is that the real crisis with the liberal democratic order is not whether autocracy is on the rise, but whether the liberal order is fit for purpose in a world threatened with existential climate change.
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After more than 40 years of liberal order, the world has had the highest social inequality, accelerating climate change, rising seas and natural disasters and failing governance everywhere.
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The environmentalist say that we have less than three decades (to 2050) to get to net-zero on carbon emissions.
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The demands on society to change are huge.
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Democratic governments facing elections that cost more and more to campaign in order to win find it harder and harder to take tough structural adjustments that are necessary to achieve both carbon neutrality and social equality.
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As Cooley and Nexon themselves admit, “in their current form, liberal institutions cannot stem the rising illiberal tide... Any attempt to grapple with this crisis will require policy decisions that are clearly illiberal or necessitate a new version of liberal order.”
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The recognition that you may have to do bad things to get good results is at the heart of the difference between the Bible and the Dao. The simple, naive version is that good things can only be achieved by righteous good politicians. The Dao recognises realistically that there is no gain without pain and no perfect leaders.
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For liberal democrats, the idealist search for the moral best has ended up with electoral promises remaining promises, no delivery of better jobs, human well-being and fairer social and ecological justice.
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Whither global order?
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For Christians, let us pray. Daoists will dialectically wait for more changes to come.
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by Andrew Sheng writes on global issues from an Asian perspective. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.

Andrew Sheng | South China Morning PostBy Tan Sri Andrew Sheng (born 1946) is Hong Kong-based Malaysian Chinese banker, academic and commentator. He started his career as an accountant and is now a distinguished fellow of Fung Global Institute, a global think tank based in Hong Kong.[1] He served as chairman of the Hong Kong Sec

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I mpressive: A worker cleaning the stairs of the Statue of Equality, depicting 11th century saint Ramanujacharya in Telangana. — AFP ` See ...
 

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Western concept of democracy lacks historical contexts, disrespect cultural difference, conquest by force, colonisation, slavery, genocide, human rights, doctrine of discovery embodied in their laws !

 

Indian saint, made-in-China statue

Impressive: A worker cleaning the stairs of the Statue of Equality, depicting 11th century saint Ramanujacharya in Telangana. — AFP

`See photos     Statue of Equality (Ramanuja).jpg

Map of Statue Of Equality
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Statue Of Equality

Religious destination in Venkannaguda, IndiaThe Statue of Equality, also referred to as the Ramanuja statue, is a statue of the 11th-century vaishnavaite Ramanuja, located on the premises of the Chinna Jeeyar Trust at Muchintal, Hyderabad. It is the second tallest sitting statue in the world. Wikipedia


` Compiled by JUNAID IBRAHIM, JAROD LIM and R. ARAVINTHAN`
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INDIAN Prime Minister Narendra Modi is under fire after claims emerged that the 10-billion-rupee (RM556mil) Ramanujacharya statue officially unveiled recently was built by a China-based company, Malaysia Nanban reported.`
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The 66m-tall Statue of Equality in Hyderabad, Telangana, was built to commemorate the 11th century Indian saint and is expected to become a tourist and pilgrimage destination.`
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Opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi claimed that the statue was not built locally and berated Modi in a Twitter post with a swipe at the New India often touted by the PM, writing “New India is China Dependent”.`
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The “aimpon” or “panchaloha” statue made of five metals – gold, silver, copper, brass and zinc – is said to be one of the tallest in the world.`
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It is located in a 14ha compound which features a temple, meditation hall and a smaller gold statue.`
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> The Taiping Gurukulam Sevai Maiyam received some much-needed help to continue serving underprivileged children of Indian descent, Makkal Osai reported.`
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Recently, the Sri Navaneetha Krishna Temple, which houses the residential school and children’s home in Kampung Boyan, received a donation of RM21,001 from elected representatives.`
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Datuk Dr Jegathisan, who runs the Gurukulam, said the funds will go towards additional classes and tuition for the Children.`

`The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.

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Friday, February 11, 2022

Gu’s win inspires Chinese descents in US to break racial dichotomy

Gu Ailing Eileen wins gold


Eighteen-year-old Gu is a cross-cultural legend for both China and the US

 

  

 China is multifaceted, but what’s important is that it is advancing

 

 

 Uncloaking The Invisible: Anti-Asian Racism Throughout History and Now

Gu Ailing Eileen competes in the women's freeski big air event at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games on February 7, 2022, with a golden Chinese dragon on her back. Photo: VCG
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Gu Ailing Eileen competes in the women's freeski big air event at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games on February 7, 2022, with a golden Chinese dragon on her back. Photo: VCGbr
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It's not just Chinese people who are immersed in the victory of Chinese skier Gu Ailing, who won the gold medal of the women's freeski big air final at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games on Tuesday. Her dazzling performance also traveled across the Pacific and inspired those with Chinese descent living in the US, to not be afraid of showing their cultural identity, and break the false dichotomy where one has to be "Chinese or American." One can be both and let the dual cultural background be a bonus, not a burden, they said.br
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As the US faces more and more prominent racial problems, outstanding athletes with a dual cultural background at the Beijing Winter Olympics will be an awakening for the country to reflect on its deep rooted racism against Asian people. Yet the effect will be limited, observers said. They are also certain that a more open and prosperous China will be able to draw more and more talents with Chinese descent to contribute to it. b
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After making worldwide headlines, Gu, who has lived and trained most of her life in the US, also became a hot topic on US social media. b
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"She popped up on my radar very recently since the Winter Olympics started, and I did not know her or ski," said a Chinese American surnamed Zhang, who has been living in Chicago for more than 20 years, told the Global Times. "I dug some of her history and noticed she spoke out for Asian groups in the US. I really appreciate such efforts. There are so few willing to speak out."
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"She really proved how much Chinese can do, how far we can push our limits," said Zhang.br
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Raised by two native Chinese women, her mother and grandmother, Gu travels to China frequently, and never hesitates to demonstrate her Chinese cultural identity, by saying that her favorite food is dumpling and putting on a "Chinese dragon" outfit during the competition on Tuesday.
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Gu announced on Weibo on June 6, 2019 that she would represent Team China in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. In the same month, Gu changed her registered nationality from the US to China on the official website of the International Snow Federation (FIS).
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During the post-match conference, Gu said that "I definitely feel as though I'm just as American as I am Chinese. I'm American when I'm in the US and Chinese when I'm in China and I've been outspoken about my gratitude to both the US and China for making me the person that I am."
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"I think it is amazing that when the relationship is so strained between the two countries, she can stand up and say she is both Chinese and American. Because many of us [Chinese Americans or Chinese living in the US] are stuck in the dichotomy where we have to be one or the other," said a Chinese surnamed Huang who lives in New York, noting that Gu's example enlightened her that you can be both and such a dual cultural background is a bonus, not a burden.
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The day before Gu won, Cathaleen Chen, a China-born American writer, published an article in Cosmopolitan, an American monthly fashion and entertainment magazine, saying that she used to feel guilty rooting for China. Gu "vindicated" her.br
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"Her decision to ski for China is a validation that I didn't know I had been yearning for. Finally, I've learned how to be proud again. And as an Asian American, pride is all we've got for now," wrote Chen.b
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Gu is not the only case, as there are also several promising athletes with Chinese descent in Team US at the Winter Olympics. For example, four of the six single figure skaters in the singles events are Asian American, like Vincent Zhou.
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Zhou once wrote on Instagram and Sina Weibo account in English and Chinese that "As a Chinese American, and the son of Chinese immigrants, the skating program says very clearly what I firmly believe: I am proud of my heritage, I am proud of my culture, and I am proud to be Asian American.
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China's sheen to talentsbr /> `
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As the US is engulfed by racial problems and rising cases of violent assault against Asian Americans are reported, outstanding athletes with Chinese heritage during the Winter Olympics may send a ripple effect to US society to put more emphasis on this group, said Zhang Tengjun, deputy director of the Department for Asia-Pacific Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, but said that such an effect may be limited.
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The US faces racism poisoned by extreme nationalism, and some white people feel insecure when they see a sluggish economy and a divided society, Zhang noted, saying such a phenomena will only fuel the country's racial issues.
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The most recent case of violence against Asian Americans was Michelle Go, who was shoved in front of a New York subway train in January. It happened less than a year after a gunman killed eight people, six of whom were of Asian descent, in Cherokee County and Atlanta in March 2021.
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The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism revealed that anti-Asian hate crimes increased by 339 percent last year compared to the year before, with New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities surpassing their record numbers in 2020, US media reported this month.
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During a previous interview with the Global Times, Committee of 100 President Huang Zhengyu told the Global Times that despite Asian Americans contributing to all aspects of life in the US throughout two centuries, "we're still seen as perpetual foreigners."
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Zhang believes that since more and more people with Chinese heritage are struggling with racial problems in the US, it is possible that certain talents will veer to China, a place that is not only their original home, but also more and more open and attractive to talents.
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The Winter Olympics is a good window for those talents to show China's rising influence, and a country that makes them proud and willing to contribute to, according to Zhang.
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The University of Arizona and the Committee of 100 conducted a survey of scientists of both Chinese and non-Chinese descent working at academic institutions in the US on issues of race and ethnicity in science and research. Around half of the Chinese scientists surveyed — including some American citizens — said they felt they were being watched by the US government.
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Dr. Jenny Lee, professor of educational policy studies and practice at the University of Arizona and one of the study's authors, said she saw "comments from American scientists of Chinese descent who felt that they would thrive more in other parts of the world. And that includes China."

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