Leonard: How China Thinks -3/5

Mark Leonard - author of the acclaimed book "What Does China Think?" and Executive Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations - describes the emerging "China Model" as an alternative to the traditional "American Model". He discusses in detail Chinese views on capitalism, economic development, political organization, military spending, and international relations as well as outlines Western challenges in dealing with an ascendant China.

PLEASE READ MY COMMENTS ON THE VIDEO BEFORE WATCHING.

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[KashifHKhan]

PART 7:

Finally, Leonard provides some good policy prescriptions for dealing with China: (a) China should be bound in multilateralism. It is erroneous to presume that as China becomes richer, it will become more like US; (b) the American model (known as "Washington Consensus") is in retreat and needs to be adjusted; and (c) the West must revisit its "liberal" policy pillars (ie. human rights, genocide, etc.) and how it conducts itself in the UN and other world organizations.

-Kashif

[KashifHKhan]

PART 6:

China believes in dissembling and low profile. As Xiaoping - who launched economic change - said: "Hide brightness, nourish obscurity. Bide our time and build our capability." It does not want "to be flattened by a flat world"; it desires benefits of globalization without minuses. So, it is building a new capitalist system, new political organization, and a new world order to prevent being subject to whims of global capitalism and US foreign policy while retaining nation state.

-Kashif

[KashifHKhan]

PART 5:

Shanghai Cooperative Agreement (SCA) is an illustration of Chinese multilateralism. China saw that US had bilateral agreements with major Asian countries and was not interested bringing the continent together. China also noted how Germany used EU to integrate itself into Europe and world community while allaying neighbors fears and giving them a stake in the system. With SCA it brought Russia and Central Asian republics together. It excluded US and made Japan into "UK of Asia".

-Kashif

[KashifHKhan]

PART 4:

According to Leonard, Chinese have taken asymmetric warfare to an "industrial scale". The idea is to avoid entering into an arms spending race with US; after all, this is how Soviet Union bankrupted itself. Rather, the goal is to neutralize US advantages through minimal investments (eg) satellite blinding technology to disable US satellites. Similarly "law-fare" is being used in multilateralism context to bind the US and other nations into a variety of agreements with China.

-Kashif

[KashifHKhan]

PART 3:

Chinese have taken ideas - such as soft power, multilateral integration, and asymmetric warfare - that were viewed by West as responsible for decline of nation state and enhanced their power with them. "Soft power" is used to promote "China model" as an alternative to "American model". China model consists of economic development, political sovereignty (ie. no interference), and multilateralism (ie. international law). Africa is interested and is opening special economic zones.

-Kashif

[KashifHKhan]

PART 2:

Chinese transformation is remarkable on account of its impact and the fact that it was accomplished without Western liberal democracy. As Leonard says, China has gone from one the most equal countries in the world to one of the most unequal; it is strictly a capitalist state with no welfare safety net. The governance system is "deliberative dictatorship" where there are no elections but public views/desires are ascertained via focus groups and opinion polls for future policy.

-Kashif

[KashifHKhan]

PART 1:

I agree with Leonard that it is much more important to know what China thinks than what it does. Chinese govt has strong ties to universities and think tanks and "tests" new ideas in them before adopting them as policy. Business ideas are also tested in special economic zones - and if successful - spread to other parts of country. Part of the goal is to not intimidate the entire population with a radical change. Moreover, most "ideas" are borrowed from the West and then adapted.

-Kashif