(1) Here is a transcript of a session on the book Power Shift: China and Asia's New Dynamics, edited by David Shambaugh of the Brooking Institution. Here, various academic authors tackle how China is using diplomacy to ensure that its political weight matches its growing economic clout in the Asia-Pacific region. For those of you in academia, the book is available from ebrary. Much as I dislike reading books onscreen, the contributor's list makes this book a must-read. (2) Next, the World Bank published Dancing with Giants: China, India and the Global Economy earlier this year and it is available online. In covering Chinese and Indian development, this edited volume also tackles the energy, emissions, and inequality challenges these two countries face. (3) Lastly, here is a podcast interview with the survey's author Dominic Ziegler, Tokyo bureau chief for the Economist. It is well worth listening to if you've got the scratch.
Now, on to my main subject matter. You may have read or heard about Benjamin Friedman's recent book on The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, where he mentions that economic stagnation negatively affects a nation's moral health. Conversely, growth enables social and political advancement. While it may be true that economic growth is a necessary condition for such advancement, it is not a sufficient one. Case in point: China. If I were up to it, I could put up an entire blog devoted solely to its perceived social and political transgressions--at least through an admittedly western perspective. However, in the spirit of the season, I will spare everyone and simply repeat what the Dalai Lama has said about China's rise from the last article in the Economist survey:
As the Dalai Lama puts it: “Mr Hu's constant emphasis on a ‘harmonious society' suggests that something is missing.” China is wracked by social inequality, environmental damage and government corruption. Beijing's preparations for the Olympics are a heart-rending metaphor for this. The games have provided a pretext for an orgy of official corruption and cultural vandalism which in a few brief years has all but destroyed a unique historical city. A few scraps have been left for touristic consumption. Beijing's inhabitants have been shunted into tower blocks on the city's edges. In their place rise vast bombastic structures, architects' and politicians' self-indulgences with no civic context.
A constant theme heard from thoughtful Chinese is that China's rise lacks a moral underpinning, and that a moral vacuum lies at the heart of Chinese life. The Dalai Lama puts the blame on the Communist Party's “radical atheism” and predicts that “sooner or later, a spiritual or moral culture will have to come to fill an internal emptiness; externally, there will have to be rule of law, democracy, freedom of the press.”
Regardless of religion--be it Buddhism, Christianity or what else have you--the message does not differ much when the subject matter comes to accumulating wealth for its own sake. As Mark 8:36 states, "For what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul in the process?" It's a question China will have to contend with more and more as its export machine eats up this world's resources while leaving a trail of environmental destruction and increased inequality at home. Sun Bin believes Premier Wen Jiabao is earnestly grappling with this question. There's no doubt about it; China's fate is closely tied to that of the rest of the world. May China heed the timeless wisdom of the world's great religions. I hope this post has given you something appropriate to ponder on this day. 