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A Serious Analysis Of China By A Serious Person.

By Dan Harris on Posted in China Business, Events, Recommended Reading

In response to what has been transpiring in the Middle East, a whole slew of articles have come out on whether China is ripe for the same thing. I have started reading maybe one hundred of these articles, but completed probably less than a dozen. I stopped reading as soon as it became apparent to me that their authors had no particular expertise and were writing the piece to advance their own agenda of painting China as evil or as a place where you should go to invest (presumably, using the author as your consultant).  

Francis Fukuyama’s Wall Street Journal piece on China does not come within either category and it is flat out great. The conclusion (that China is not yet ripe for change) is not what matters. What matters is that Fukuyama engages in real and sustained and substantial analysis. If you read no other article on what we can expect in China, read this one. 

NOW.

  • Mark Button

    This is indeed an excellent article, much better than most of what is being passed off on us. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

  • Jesper W.

    I agree with you. This article is great because it really analyzes what China is like and draws its conclusion from that, instead of making up the conclusion and writing the article to suit that. We all could use more of these sorts of works.

  • linda

    I think there are two points which make China a big difference from those Middle East countries.
    One is that we like sand, it is not easy to unite and the other is that we have no religions so we are easy to be softened down with proper reasons.

  • http://www.iqidu.com Mao Ruiqi

    First, i would humbly remark that the CCP is a multiparty system within itself, composed of various conflicting constituents, namely the two leading parties being the Beijing and the Shanghai. Thus, the change of Jiang to Hu represented not only changes in personnel but also signaled major changes in policies especially relative to peasants.
    Second, I believe the National CCP has attempted, maybe even more than the US parties, to be responsive to its peoples’ issues. Thus, disturbances have typically been regional with regional-centric grievances.
    Finally, I agree that the middle class consciously or unconsciously realizes that disorder could easily topple their current affluence; hence, if they are not served by the current CCP bureaucrats, i.e. Beijing, they will find a way to toss them out in favor of a more responsive one, i.e. Shanghai. Alternatively, if the besieged CCP fails to yield, then the Army would most likely intervene. Hence, agreeing with the author, the Chinese political system systemically favors stability.

  • Shannon

    Indeed an article worth reading for a serious way to analyze what is really happening in China. It is head and shoulders above what most of the media has put out.

  • James Wu

    Bottom line… This aint gonna happen in China. I live here and have run a business here for the last several years(legally). I am also ethnically Chinese. The Chinese government is FAR more responsive to the people’s needs and wants than the American government at this point. They know to maintain stability, they must continue to raise the wages and living standards of its people, from the countryside to the big cities. Bao Ba is their goal and they continuously make great strides to maintain and accomplish this feat. They are doing what is truly necessary to create a sustainable and strong economy, investing heavily in national infrastructure and modernizing laws all the way to strategically and wisely investing in nations that have valuable natural resources. Unfortunately I cannot say the same about the US, where it’s government has all but forgotten its people and the only investment they’re making is pumping more devalued dollars into the stock market.