- cross-posted to:
- geopolitics
- cross-posted to:
- geopolitics
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Trying to phrase this in a way that won’t spark an argument: no country represents a pinnacle of achievement. The very idea is absurd.
Right, and I very much agree with the conclusion from the article:
The modern world is a pluralist global system. Different states will follow different paths to development and experiment with different forms of government. The West does not have all — or maybe any — solutions to the many problems the world is currently facing.
I think there is wisdom and good ideas present in most and probably all societies on earth. But many of the dominant ideas from world governments aren’t really meant to improve the lives of the people as a collective—they are meant to protect or expand the power of the ruling class in that state.
Given the well-documented failures of current systems of government across the world, I agree that pluralism is valuable so that we can assess which systems lead to better outcomes.
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I reject several of the premises of the article, in particular the idea that China and the western countries are independent enough from each other that their rise or fall could be seen as independent phenomenons and also the idea that China’s growth represents something that the West could emulated and that isn’t just a result of the fact that China’s population was still largely peasants at the start of that growth. It is always easier to see higher percentage growth if you start from a very low base value.
That said I am not saying China isn’t doing some things better than the west, particularly when it comes to decisive and unified action but again, a lot of that is the result of the different starting positions, if the status quo favors you already you tend to be cautious not to lose that status while risky behaviour is more likely to benefit you if you start further down. And of course it is easier to get a population to act in a unified way if you can just force them as opposed to having to convince them.
Actually, the article states that China is an integral part of the world economy and explicitly warns that if there were economic troubles in China then the whole world including the west would be negatively affected.
Meanwhile, China has been demonstrating a high rate of growth in recent years having already transitioned to a high tech economy. We’re consistently seeing over 5% growth from China, and clean energy was top driver of China’s economic growth in 2023 https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-clean-energy-was-top-driver-of-chinas-economic-growth-in-2023/
There’s also no evidence for the claim that China is forcing their population to do anything. Pretty much every public opinion survey shows that the government in China enjoys broad public support that’s far higher than any western government has. If anything, it appears that it’s the western governments that are forcing people to participate in a system that’s not serving their interests.
