Do the Chinese have the same concept of friendship that we have?
The Chinese, as individuals, have no friends. China, as a country, all the less so.
I think the Chinese are not curious about how the barbarians govern
themselves as long as they’re subordinate to China, economically and
technologically. The Chinese are the least ideological people in the
world and the most pragmatic.
If
China loses its edge in technology, if they fall behind the West, if the
Communist Party is seen to have failed in competing with the West, I
think that will be a significant threat to its power.
You can’t
effect that by complaining about human rights in China. China’s
violation of human rights is repugnant to us. Of course, we will
complain. But that doesn’t really do anything. The Chinese only respect
power, and our power is in innovation. If we show that we can
out-innovate the Chinese and leave them behind in critical sectors of
technology, I think that will undermine the credibility of the present
government.
A lot of my American friends say the problem is the
wicked Chinese Communist Party which is oppressing the good Chinese
people. I think that’s complete nonsense. I see the Communist Party as
simply another manifestation of the Mandarin administrative cast which
has ruled China since it was unified in the third century BC.
Certainly no Augustinian sense of common love to hold a country
together. What holds the country together is ambition. Therefore, it’s
critical that the meritocracy be fair.
Xi Jinping’s daughter goes
to Harvard, but no Chinese president can get his child into Peking
University unless she gets the right score on the gaokao, the university
entrance exam.
Of course, we need to worry about the Chinese. If
the Chinese dominate the next wave of major industrial applications,
we’ll be poor, and we’ll be less secure. We’ll be dependent on them, and
I don’t like that.
I don’t think the Chinese plan to invade us
or establish an American Communist Party on the model of the Chinese
Communist Party.
https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/10/article/you-can-never-be-chinas-friend-spengler/
