Why China Doesn't Identify with the West, Explained

Here is an analysis of why China today, having opened up and seen an increasing embrace of foreign culture, still doesn't identify with the West at its core. References down below.


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Time stamps:
[0:00] Intro
[1:22] Acknowledge the West
[3:00] China's political tradition
[5:13] Addressing your objection on Taiwan
[7:23] The trajectory of China's politics
[9:56] Addressing your another objection
[10:29] How Chinese people look at nation state
[11:55] chit chat



Bibliography (by topic, chronologically)
/the western canon/
Goodin, R., Pettit, P., and Pogge, T. (2007) eds. A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, 2nd edition, volume 1, Blackwell Publishing, chapter 14, 21, 25

Haidt, J (2012) The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, Pantheon Books, chapter 5

Hobbes, T (1994) Leviathan: Edited, with introduction and notes by Edwin Curle, Hackett Publishing

Locke, J. (2005) Second Treatise of Government, Hackett Publishing

/Confucianism and CCP/
Gardner, D. (2014) Confucianism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press

/the 20th century China/
Bedeski, R. (1975) ‘The Evolution of the Modern State in China: Nationalist and Communist Continuities’, World Politics, Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 541-568.

Fenby, J. (2008) Modern China: the Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present, HarperCollins Publishers, chapter 7-18

Karl, E, R. (2010) Mao Zedong and China in the Twentieth-Century World: A Concise History, Duke University Press, chapter 5

Mühlhahn, M. (2019) Making China Modern: From the Great Qing to Xi Jingping, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Chapter 4-7

Twitchett, D. and Fairbank, J. (2008) The Cambridge History of China, Volume 14: The People's Republic: Part 1: The Emergence of Revolutionary China 1949-1965, Cambridge University Press, chapter 1-2

Mao, Tse-Tung. (2013) Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung, Volume 4, Foreign Languages Press, pp.411

/nationalism/
Louie, K. (2008) (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to Modern Chinese Culture, Cambridge University Press, chapter 3


Tags: Chinese politics, China, orientalism, Chinese society, Chinese culture, CCP, communism, socialism, socialism with Chinese characteristics, confucianism, Confucius, east asian politics, jonny harris, nathan rich, a hundred years of humiliation, nationalism, Chinese nationalism, social commentary, internet analysis, video essay, xi jinping, autocracy, ccp dictatorship, authoritarian, century of humiliation, imperial china, colonialism, modern history, mao zedong, sino-japanese war, the nanking treaty, the qing dynasty, history of china

#chinesepolitics #socialcommentary #modernhistory

Subscriber count: 130

[TimePeace]

That's also why China keeps saying that its model cannot be copied by others. Others have to forge their own model for growth. Eric Li famously said that China's system of government is pragmatic. The party does not change but its policies can change and adapt to the situation very quickly. In Western democracy, the party changes, but policies are hard to change. Why? Because in Western democracies, the government is often short term and its policies are intended for popular votes and not geared towards long term planning.

[nongpokngbalaishram]

I am from Manipur which located in the Northeast of India. I love the way you present China. I hope one day India and china see each other as human beings who are fighting for a better future, and understanding that both country have problems and we have to create a platform for good communication among the citizens of both country.

Imagine if China and India become good friends. What a good future await us !!!!

[ritadas]

Being an Indian
I will say you to be proud of your Chinese culture

[akshobhgiridharadas]

I enjoyed this! I took classes on China with a China expert, you summarized his four books in 13 minutes, so thank you.

[cdusen]

In my 80 years and long interest in China, I found this presentation to be the clearest and most succinct summary of the more recent history behind today's China.

[kennywong]

I need to add a few points regarding Confucianism which were sorely misrepresented in the Western media.
1. Confucianism states that order is important for the country to run efficiently. However, when someone is messing with the order, be it the king or commoner, they should be challenged and removed. This is how the Zhou dynasty replaced the Shang dynasty.
2. Confucianism does not advocate social stratification. It rather advocate a system of status mobility, ie as a commoner, you can become a civil servant. The best minds are to contribute to the development of the country. You are not to focus solely on money making or benefitting oneself, as you are part of the society and it is every rights of the society requiring you to give back.
3. Confucianism stressed on learning from the past. However, it was not to go back to a society of stone age, but rather learn the behaviours of sage kings, their ability to innovate etc. It is a treasure trove of crystalised experience that one can use.

[nigefal]

Only half way through the video but it is excellent. As an Irish person I often wondered why the current system seems to suit China. When any other country that is so vast and populace, would have broken up long ago. The explanation of Confucius/Family really made sense.

[manfromnantucket]

Thank you, Lan Siming :) For context, I'm a US citizen, lived in China 11 years, married to Chinese woman, with Shanghai baby (2013), now back in the USA since 2019. This was so informative. You have a very special skillset to explain this so well to the world. I feel it is fair and balanced, in fact, one of the best I've seen. It will provide to the world a better chance of mutual understanding, and peaceful coexistence. Blessings to you.

[wilfredchew]

Greetings from Singapore. In my opinion, every country has their own right to self determination. If it works and the results are positive, no one has the right to condemn it just because it goes against their ideals. No political system is perfect, it is a question of balancing the pros and cons and managing the outcomes. Your study and analysis about this subject is very thoughtful and well done. My compliments. Cheers!

[bobhooker]

Excellent video once again. You make many of the points that I've been trying to make to friends and acquaintances since i returned to the US after seven years in China: that China (and indeed any country) is much more complex than China=communist=evil. You cannot understand China without understanding its culture, traditions and history, and especially its interactions with the West for the last ~200 years.

But there is something even more fundamental, and universally applicable to all nations that I would like to bring up, and this is that government, any government, be it democratic or communist or monarchy or what have you, must perform the basic functions of governing. It must provide for basic stability, otherwise known as law and order, and mechanisms for feeding, clothing and housing its citizens. Everything else, including ideology, form of government, etc., is secondary to those fundamentals.

This is a difficult thing for Westerners to get their heads around. For the last couple of generations in particular, up to zero COVID anyway, Chinese people have been for the most part happy with the way things are going, and why shouldn't they be? China's rapidly expanding economy has vaulted it from one of the world's poorest nations to the ranks of the world's strongest countries, pulling a billion people out of poverty along with it. China's youth have opportunities their parents could never have dreamed of. When asked how they can stand living without democracy, Chinese students are likely to answer that things are going fine the way they are.

It's when things go badly, like with Xi's Zero COVID policy, or the economic inequalities and hardships leading up to Tiananmen Square that some are saying communism has failed and they start talking about democracy. The opposite is happening to some extent here in the US: there are those who believe that democracy is failing and are ready to embrace authoritarianism. This is essentially what happened in Russia in the 1990s.

The bottom line is that there is nothing sacred about democracy, communism, socialism, monarchy or any other form of government. The test of any government of whatever stripe is that it must perform its basic functions competently or risk being replaced.

[KatieDawson]

Although I have issues with some of the human rights issues of the CCP, they also have brought more people out of poverty than any regime of the 20th century. Also, it isn't inherently true that a 2 party system is better than a 1 party system, or even a multi-party. I would say 2 party systems are awful and perhaps there are benefits to everyone being on the "same side" as it were. I do think that China has essentially failed to be Marxist, however, and instead is unfortunately much more similar to state-capitalism, which is closer to fascist corporatism than a classless worker-owned economy. But I cannot blame any country for being distrusting, hostile, or even downright hateful of the West. After all, look at all we have done to the world. If you can keep us out, you probably should.

[olderchin]

An pristine view of the world and China from a young intelligent individual. You are correct of course. But Life is complicated, people are complicated. We are tribalistic and tend to look after our own interest. Confucius had a little to do with it but we are who we are because of our history.
Chinese are no different from any other, we are proud people and independent. We are both good and bad but most of all, we are survivalist. Like any culture, we would want to determine our own future and keep what is ours. There have been many forms of government in the past and present, the communist party is not some alien race that took over China. It is a home grown movement that have Chinese well being at its goal, the reason for China's success. If a country leaders cares about its people, it will do whatever that necessary to ensure it survival and progress. I may not have lived in China but I am confident of the Chinese government sincerity towards its populace.
The world is a complicate place, with many culture with its own interest and survival at heart. We compete for resources and control of our destiny, sometimes peacefully and other times not. No country or culture is perfect or good or bad, just self interested.
People lie, cheat and steal to win. People from every culture does it, my experience working with people from all over the world guides my view, we Chinese are no different.
Western media and western leaders spread lies and misinformation about China because they are trying to preserve their culture and they feel threaten by another rising culture that is not their own. They are also trying to preserve their dominance over the present world. Western culture and corporations have had a free rein to exploit other countries using their military might and financial power in the last 800 years. Cultures from the Middle East, Africa and China are beginning to stand up for their own interest, which is the reason for so many wars in the last 70 years involving western power attacking Asian and Middle Eastern countries. Most cultures are going to react if they perceive their survival is threaten.
I am old so forgive my lengthy meandering comment.

[ELGtheMAN]

Hi girl, I'm from Malaysia, an ethnic Chinese too. With regards to your first question in England on how do you put up with dictatorship living in China, I would like to share with you my answer. Yes, sometimes I say these to my western friends and even online too and most of them couldnt answer me back.
I tell them that don't you think it's ironic or even silly that most of the time you do not trust your own politicians and even mainstream medias but you trust them like it's a total reality when your politicians and mainstream medias talked or reported about China ???

[sgtK]

I am from South Korea, an East Asian country with "western style" democratic political system. And throughout hundreds of years of history Korea was under even stronger Confucius traditions than China, but we still ended up having a western style democracy. So I think the difference that divided the two countries can only be explained by historical experiences the two countries went through and the collective memory each history has left behind.
In S.Korea we too have experienced atrocities by imperial powers during 19 to 20th century but the memory of Korean War during which we were saved by the US and other western country has effaced anti-western elements of our memory of the colonial past and even went on to engraving pro-western sentiments among general public.

[Ididntchoosethisname]

Thanks. Very informative video.

I knew most of this already. But it helps to put things in perspective when it is so well summarised and put together.

[ted]

Having seen none of your other videos or knowing anything about you beyond this video these are my thoughts. The video was very well balanced, particularly given the short time frame for the video, and I felt that you put the general Chinese ideas, opinions, feelings, and thoughts forward in a very precise and to the point manner. Your coverage of listing Western influences and then contrasting them with historical Chinese influences was well done. As this was a general coverage of the topic and not meant to go into heavy detail I would definitely recommend this video to others if they had an interest or knew nothing about the topic prior. You came across as very well educated, intelligent, firm in your own personal ideas, able to view both sides in as neutral a manner as can be expected, and overall it was a very well done video. Nothing further to add.

[sowell]

I think this is a good entry point to explain China, but I would like to add a few points:
1. From the point of view of political philosophy: Tiandao, with the power of nature as the highest representative, believes that all people are born equal, but their positions in social organizations are different, and the responsibilities they bear are also different.
China's 3, 000-year agricultural tradition determines that China takes the family as the basic unit and pursues political elite rule. As a ruler, one should have a sense of caring for the common people. We call it minben, which is deeply rooted in China's traditional consciousness. The foundation of Confucianism: virtue, benevolence, and righteousness. These genes make Chinese civilization far different from other civilizations.
If the ruler destroys this foundation, the rule will also be ended by civilian riots. Before modernization, there will be a major riot in 300 years, and political legitimacy will be violently overthrown. This is very cruel, because beyond the survival line, Many farmers are willing to do this. Therefore, the Chinese hate chaos, prefer unity and collectivism, and like to integrate all cultures that are beneficial to them. This is difficult to change.
Regardless of any ideology, the tradition of meritocracy determines that China's greatest tradition is bureaucratic bureaucracy, which has never existed in any country. Fulfilling government obligations through a large and effective bureaucracy has not changed in Chinese history.

2. The logic of reality: It is the basis of agricultural production that determines the Chinese people's thinking, emphasizing intuitive rationality and introspection, but weaker than formal logic and rationality, leading to backwardness in science and technology. From 1900 to the present, what the Chinese people have been striving for is to unify the country, learn excellent culture, and preserve excellent traditions. The Chinese understand Europe and the United States far more than Europe and the United States understand China. Many people think that China is static and rigid, but as a Chinese, my feeling is that everything is changing in decades, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 00, 10, the thinking of each generation The differences are very large, because different environments give them different perceptions, but the traditional underlying code has not changed.
3. Every marriage has its own troubles, and every thought has its pros and cons. Collectivism brings welfare to China, but it also brings corruption, inefficiency and internal friction. This is a problem facing the entire East Asian society, and China will also solve this problem.

[hectorgamez]

You, Chinese people paid for hundred + Mao years a very high price for what you are now. Didn't desappear or succumb but overcome all hardships, misery, humiliation and extreme suffering. I can see nowadays proud and confident people. There are some very dark clouds on the horizont, for you and for the rest of the world. Only together we may stand. Greetings señorita, good job.

[nicholasm]

Thank you for this wonderful video. It is rare to see such thoughtful and evenhanded content on the internet. I know China has problems but the western model also has problems, and not incidentally but because of the early modern heritage of individualism that you describe here.

[Reformation]

Very honest description of the origins of current Chinese political thought. Well done!