Thursday, June 12, 2008

review of "what does china think?": uday balakrishnan

jun 11th, 2008

as you know i generally don't read anything in china's national magazine, but this article by uday balakrishnan was recommended to me by a friend. uday is an independent analyst, and his views are worth considering. he also is not afflicted by sinomania, and does remind us time and again that the india story is important, and is underestimated. actually, that's just fine in my opinion. india should burst upon the scene without warning, as indians did on the IT world in the 1999-2000 timeframe. best to take them by surprise.

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20080620251207600.htm

of course, in my cynical way, i see mark leonard as yet another brit shopkeeper selling his wares, ie. his shilling capacity, to the highest bidder, which happens to be china right now. the brits are famous for this. remember kim philby and other spies for the soviets?

3 comments:

socal said...

No, that book is a must read for even lay China observers. I was planning to write a review with excerpts. It is a relatively short book but gives excellent insight into Chinese thinking.

Take this. We've heard how America should manage China's rise by integrating it into world system etc.

Leonard cites a neoComm, hawkish Chinese communist, who wrote a paper on how China should manage the decline of West and help them with a soft landing.

Chinese naked pursuit of power gets repeated exposure through the thoughts of leading Chinese experts.

kp11 said...

Oh lord, please let do something bad to China, otherwise our 'incredible plurality ( we even have differently behaved people in the same family, isn't that great!)' will look useless and counterproductive to a model in nation building

Unknown said...

Noo no lord, lets have brainwashed humanoids like those in the middle kingdom where we deny anything bad or perceived to our great han race and make believe the mythical dragon will roar one day. never mind that thousands of humanoids (all with incredible unity in thinking) die from avian flu, sars, malnutrition, earthquakes, being coolies, selling fly lice and accumulating bad karma but cheer for the great han olympics. To quote an apt saying (since this is a discussion with han idealogy after all) from the land of plurality - gand ugdi pan kannath bugdi - no clothes to wear but i want golden earrings - Heil Mao!