Header image: KF photograph – Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, as seen on a wall in a church sacristy in Changchun.
The Dean of Shandong: Confessions of a Minor Bureaucrat at a Chinese University (Daniel A. Bell, 2023)
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691247120/the-dean-of-shandong
- “it’s largely a tale of bungles and misunderstandings.”
- “The other part is that I’m a Canadian citizen, born and bred in Montreal, without any Chinese ancestry.”
- “To feel good about ourselves, we also need to be good to others”
- “Here’s where Confucianism comes in: The tradition emphasizes that the good life lies in social relationships and commitment to the family, expanding outward.”
- KF – FPPL – Maslow
- “Still, I think the demonization of the CCP needs to be countered”
- “For one thing, the demonization reinforces repressive trends in China and benefits security-obsessed hard-liners in China’s political system. China’s leaders are not about to take serious political risks and promote democratic experimentation when they feel that the whole political establishment of the world’s most powerful country seems united in its fight against them.”
- “China has neither the intention nor the ability to export its political system abroad.”
- “China hasn’t gone to war with anybody since 1979”
- “on the other hand, China is surrounded by U.S. military bases, and it’s not absurd for Chinese policy makers to worry that the United States and its allies might launch a war against China”
- “It’s also worth asking why the CCP has so much support at home if it’s as evil as advertised.”
- “The main reason for support is that the CCP has presided over the most spectacular economic growth story in global history”..“eight hundred million people lifted out of poverty”
- “the ninety-six-million-strong CCP includes tens of millions of farmers, workers, entrepreneurs, and intellectuals who have nothing to do with high-level policy making in Beijing.”
- “So, yes, I do have a political agenda. I aim to de-demonize China’s political system.”
- “I’m a critic of the CCP, but I also see positive things to build on and I do not favor overthrowing the whole system.”
- “Former president Hu Jintao is perhaps the most boring leader in modern times.”
- “The basic idea is that black-haired rulers project an image of vigor and energy: They work hard for the good of the people.”…“This is a political issue, not a lifestyle one.”
- “In 2019, President Xi broke another long-standing political norm: He appeared in public with streaks of gray in his hair.”…“The topic was off limits for the domestic media, but”
- “Does President Xi’s more “natural” appearance reflect the end of collective leadership?”
- “The belief that white-haired people are not supposed to rule is perhaps the one article in China’s unwritten constitution that cannot be violated.”
- “the West has a strong missionary impulse”
- “Today, democratic fundamentalism has replaced religious fundamentalism.”
- “As President Biden put it, there are two types of political systems: democracies with values and autocracies with “lack of values.”
- “They look at the fact that the same political party has been in power for more than seventy years, and they think that there’s been no political reform. We—in China—know that’s ridiculous.”
- “ongoing project with a large gap between the ideal and reality,”
- “When Westerners think of political alternatives to electoral democracy, they think of fascism and Stalin’s communism. They think China’s political system is fundamentally similar to these evil totalitarian regimes; hence, it needs to be defeated, by war if necessary. That’s why some say China poses an existential challenge to the West.”
- “Terms that sound positive in Chinese can sound negative in English if they are not translated properly. EXAMPLES
- “it’s worth noting that salaries are typically much lower for high-ranking university bureaucrats than for leading academics in Chinese universities;”
- “It’s also noteworthy that the lucky number for license plates in Shandong is not “8,” as in the rest of China , but “7” because of the expression “七上八下” , which refers to the promotion and demotion of public officials.”
“Surely a full life involves serving the public in some capacity”
- “ Inequality is good.”
- “There is a need for a “first among equals” leader who has the ability to consider different perspectives and who has the moral if not formal authority to be decider-in-chief.”
- “When I give talks on Chinesestyle political meritocracy and I’m asked why President Xi was selected as Numero Uno instead of other highly competent and hard-working leaders, I say, only half-jokingly, “朋友多”
“Confucius himself was asked for one saying that would destroy the state, and he responded “if a ruler is deficient and no one contradicted him.”
- “Legalism—meaning rule by law rather than rule of law”
- “It’s not just that public officials think twice before engaging in corrupt practices. They think almost all the time about what can go wrong, to the point that decision-making has become virtually paralyzed. The procedures for using public funds have become bafflingly complex and punitive, and it’s safer not to spend money. The costs are huge, and growing. China’s success over the past four decades is partly explained by the fact that government officials were encouraged to experiment and innovate, thus helping to propel China’s reforms. But ultracautious behavior from the government means that innovative officials won’t get promoted and problems won’t get fixed.”
- “The coronavirus crisis shows that paralyzing public officials can be literally deadly.”
- “If the corrupt official was the bane of the Chinese public before the anti-corruption campaign, today it’s the do-nothing official who blindly sticks to the rules and cares for nothing other than pleasing higher-ups.”
“It became a bit tiring, and after a while I began to host fewer meals, acting like those other bureaucrats who keep their heads down for fear of getting them chopped off.”
- “Why is Kongzi—known as Confucius in the West—regarded as the teacher of teachers? There are several reasons.”
- “He specified the aim of teaching: It involves not just the transmission of knowledge, but, even more important, an effort to train exemplary persons with ability and motivation to work for the public interest.”
- “The process of teaching and learning is a life-long relation between teacher and students, based on respect and mutual affection.”
- “Different students need to be improved in different ways, which helps to explain why Kongzi gave so many different responses to questions”
- “If there’s one takeaway from Kongzi’s teaching method, it’s that teaching needs to be intensively focused on the particularity of each student, with lots of give and take between teacher and student.”
- “Dialogue is two-way, even though the teacher, by virtue of being a teacher, is usually doing the teaching.”
- “For teaching to be effective, the teacher should learn about the unique character of each student, which requires prolonged interaction in different contexts. Practically speaking, it means that the ideal classroom should be small in size, with each individual student given the opportunity to improve in his or her own way and to engage with the teacher both inside and outside of the formal classroom setting”
- “I capped the number at twelve students and decided that we’d discuss Xunzi’s political thought.” )
- “I asked students to prepare six questions or comments based on the reading for that week: two on passages they agreed with and why, two on passages they disagreed with and why, and two on passages they didn’t quite understand.” )
- “The Chinese Communist Party seemed to be communist in name only, and it increasingly emphasized “Chinese characteristics,”
- “Marx’s ideal of lower communism: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his contribution,”
- The goal is not equal distribution of income (or distribution according to need, as in higher communism), but rather to equalize starting points so that all citizens have equal opportunities to be rewarded for hard work.
- “China, as Deng Xiaoping recognized, had to go through a capitalist phase to develop the productive forces on the way to communism, but now is the time to transition to communism.”
- “Marx recognized that capitalism has an important virtue: It has the consequence of developing the productive forces—technology and the knowledge to make use of it—more than any previous economic system.”
- “The CCP’s constitution specifies that “the realization of communism is the highest ideal and ultimate goal of the Party.”
- “In Marxist terms, China seems to be transitioning to the “dictatorship of the proletariat,” the political superstructure of “lower communism.” Marx argued that countries need to go through a “dictatorship of the proletariat” in between the capitalist and higher communist phases of history. Dictatorship is necessary to put down the “remnants of the bourgeoisie” and to ensure that people are trained in both practical and theoretical skills, thus allowing for the flourishing of the “fully developed individual” in communist society.”
- “But the dictatorship is short term. Marx predicted that the state would eventually “wither away” in higher communism: Developed machinery would produce all the goods human beings need, we’d all be truly free and equal with the opportunity to develop our many-sided talents as we see fit, resources would be distributed according to need, and there would be no need for a coercive state to protect the interests of a ruling class . The end of history, in Marx’s view, is an anarchist society where order can be secured without any coercion.1”
- “Not surprisingly, there is no support in subsequent history for Marx’s idea that the “dictatorship of the proletariat” is workable in the short term and dispensable in the long term. As Bakunin predicted, when revolutionaries take over the state, they become a new ruling class.”
- “As Marx recognized, higher communism must be global to be successful: “Empirically, communism is only possible as the act of the dominant peoples ‘all at once’ and simultaneously, which presupposes the universal development of productive forces and the world intercourse bound up with communism.”17 Empirically, communism seems to be impossible.”
8 Censorship, Formal and Informal”
- “My mood varies almost directly with the ease of Internet access, and lately I’ve often been in a foul mood”
- “Today all leading voices in the West agree on the “China threat.” There is almost universal consensus in the West that China is led by an evil government that is bad to its own people and dangerous to people in other countries.”
- “In my view, the demonization of China, especially of its political system, has gone from bad to worse because of the realization that “they” won’t be like “us.”
- “This reaction is grounded in a form of self-love. It was perfectly fine to support China’s economic and political development so long as “they” were viewed as a somewhat inferior civilization that would eventually learn the truth about the superiority of Western-style capitalism and liberal democracy. But those hopes have faded.”
- “The real worry, however, is that “they” will surpass “us.” The flaws of Western-style democracy are becoming increasingly evident.”
- “It is wrong to think that all countries that do not use democratic elections to select leaders share the same authoritarian nature. China is not run by a family or by the military. In principle, it is a political meritocracy, meaning equality of opportunity in education and government, with positions of leadership being distributed to relatively virtuous and qualified members of the political community.”
- “academics are free to publish politically sensitive material in English language publications, but here, too, talented Chinese professors who do not write well in English are at a disadvantage. I try to help by suggesting translators, but it’s costly for young professors .11” )
- “The anti-China turn in the West has benefited our faculty because it is easier to recruit talented young Chinese professors who completed their doctoral studies abroad.”
- “in a bid to shape international public opinion about China, President Xi Jinping told senior officials that the country needed to present a more “credible, loveable, and respectable” image of China.1 This surprising formulation is more than a call to tame down the “Wolf Warrior” rhetoric. The key word is “可爱” .2 Ke ai literally means “can love” and it is translated by official media as “lovable.” But ke ai means “cute” in everyday usage.” )
- “the killings on June 4.”
- “The idea is that the leader accumulates mystique by doing nothing and when he does intervene , the people listen. Also, by not intervening too frequently, the leader does not show his desires, and hence can’t be manipulated by ministers or other underlings.”
(Mar 9, 2024) Rare glimpse inside China’s halls of power as Beijing hosts major political event amid high security https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/09/china-two-sessions-forum-transparency-beijing-protests
- Consider this ⬆ article as an example of the way ‘news’ reported from China is framed in Western media
In, contrast, watch
(Mar 1, 2024) Is China’s 40-year experiment with the West over? | DW Business 7 Anne Stevenson-Yang
