Reg, I have an old friend who was a diplomat in the East and The West. He has told me of experiences most of us would be unaware.So I guess you know what you are writing about.I remember the BRITISH EMPIRE culture we were fed at school in the 1930's.Salute the flag and songs like "The British Grenadiers" made us feel superior to the "slit-eyed races"The truth is learnt in time,are we still in a vulnerable position to the modern version of the "yellow peril"

I'm not sure what I'd call China's current system, but it's not socialism. The closest parallel I've encountered is the oligarchy-controlled planned capitalism of Singapore. Indeed, the current regime in the PRC seems less a Confucian-inspired meritocracy, than a corrupt bastion of nepotism and crony-capitalism.

I find myself (to my surprise) more or less in agreement with both BOAZ_David and Demos. China's economy is booming, though it is starting from a very low base. How long can it continue to expand? I suspect that a consumer society of 1.3 billion would require more resources (energy, minerals, food) than are actually available on the Earth.

Reg argues that "Venezuela, Bolivia and other Latin, African and Central Asian communities are likely to find the Chinese model immensely attractive". According to Geert Hofstede's analysis http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_dimensions.php , these countries ARE like China in their social interactions (apologies to all those who dislike Hofstede's analysis). They might understand the Chinese, but that doesn't necessarily mean that their foreign policy and trade agendas will co-incide with China's.

Will China eclipse the West in the current century? Perhaps.

Does the West "marginalise and denigrate other traditions"? Perhaps.

Could a Chinese academic publish a paper complaining that China "marginalises and denigrates other traditions"? Not bloody likely.

The famous physicist Wolfgang Pauli once said of a rambling unclear paper that it was "not even wrong." Since then "not even wrong" has been the greatest insult a physicist can deliver. It describes a paper that is so intellectually sloppy that it is not really possible to discuss it.

The article tells us more about Reg Little than it does about China. If this is the level of "analysis" that prevails in the Australia diplomatic service then I have only one comment:

Be afraid

Be VERY afraid.

A few examples of sloppiness.

Little refers to "the West."

What is "the West?" It's a cold war construct which is becoming less relevant by the day.

Little seems to think that "the West" did not anticipate the rise of China.

That may have been true in the stultified atmosphere of Australian diplomacy. In the real world resource companies in South Africa and Australia were trying to estimate the impact of China's rise on demand for resource as far back as the 1980s.

I think China probably will make it to great power status though it's not there yet. For an idea of some of the challenges it faces see:

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070901faessay86503/elizabeth-c-economy/the-great-leap-backward.html

Quote:

The coal that has powered China's economic growth, for example, is also choking its people. Coal provides about 70 percent of China's energy needs: the country consumed some 2.4 billion tons in 2006 -- more than the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom combined. In 2000, China anticipated doubling its coal consumption by 2020; it is now expected to have done so by the end of this year. Consumption in China is huge partly because it is inefficient: as one Chinese official told Der Spiegel in early 2006, "To produce goods worth $10,000 we need seven times the resources used by Japan, almost six times the resources used by the U.S. and -- a particular source of embarrassment -- almost three times the resources used by India."

Poppycock! Socialism with Chinese characteristics is like black with white characteristics!

The dynamic of the Chinese economy comes from pure unalloyed capitalism. Meanwhile the regime spouts the outdated pure socialist rhetoric of the past. Successful entrepeneurial ventures all over China provide the cash that props up sclerotic state enterprises that would fall over if they had to survive on the own resources.

In truth China is a mass of contradictions that will have to be resolved some day. I very much doubt the regime knows how.

"China welcomes leaders from all corners of the world to Beijing in a unique and grand ceremonial style and can show them an energetic, purposeful and highly productive population in all parts of its extensive territory." Yes, like Tibet, presumably.

What nauseating propaganda!!

Michael

Michael T,

More like nauseating poppycock. It's not even propaganda.

It is frightening to think this man was an Australian DIPLOMAT!

I sincerely hope the Australian diplomatic corps has lifted its game since Mr. Little left

Seneca

Sorry I have been out of touch for some days. Could you let me know how we continue our dialogue. Would it be simply as further comments on this page or in some other way?

Some of the subsequent comments have been amusing, but for their their bullying, intemperate and ignorant character. Clearly there are a number of people who wish to maintain stereotypes of China, preferably without setting foot in the country. Having been in half a dozen major Chinese cities (three with populations approaching that of Australia) and several smaller towns and villages over the past month or so I am dismayed at how many self proclaimed experts do not seem to have any curiosity about the forces already beginning to re-shape Australia in ways few understand and over which ever fewer have any influence.

I might mention that my submitted draft had a question mark at the end of the title. I did not think it mattered too much when it was dropped in the published piece but it may have conforted some who seem to have been so upsret that Chinese dynamic 'capitalism' is capable of being presented credibly as 'socialism'.

A reading of the first two lines of the Daodejing (followed by some subsequent years of serious reflection) might also help those who cannot see the logic in my piece. Unfortunately the Chinese have no obligation to conform our intellectual expectations.

With best regards

Reg