Posted on 06/20/2009 9:10:41 PM PDT by vivi
A Chinese commentator says his country needs to stand up stronger to the West. This week we're turning the tables at Beijing Dispatch: Instead of offering the usual foreign-correspondent musings about China, Forbes invited an outspoken Chinese essayist to take a few shots at the U.S. and the rest of the West. Wang Xiaodong, 53, is one of the co-authors of Unhappy China, a controversial nationalist (Wang prefers "patriotic") tome that seeks to prod the nation into a much more aggressive posture in international relations. Unhappy China has received some harsh reviews from China's media and intellectual elite but has also found a big audience, selling 800,000 non-pirated copies since it hit shelves in March. Wang, a researcher at the Communist Youth League-affiliated China Youth and Children Research Center, urges that China strengthen its military and stand up to the U.S. His 90-minute conversation with Forbes began and ended on natural resources, as Wang zeroed in on the Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto's ( RIO - news - people ) scuttling this month of Chinalco's $19.5 billion deal to increase its minority stake in Rio to 18%. Wang claims that Rio struck a much worse pact financially--with BHP Billiton ( BBL - news - people )--because the West didn't want to do business with China; regardless of whether that is true, it illustrates the very real gripe among many Chinese that Western nations aren't playing fair. Forbes: Since the change of U.S. administrations, engagement between the U.S. and China hasn't slowed down on issues such as North Korea, climate change, the currency and the global economic crisis.
Wang Xiaodong:We absolutely have common interests and points of conflict. For example...
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Didn’t a Japanese author pen a similar tome about 20-25 years ago about Japan standing up to the West?
With or current president … no worries. ;-)
/johnny
Are you referring to Shintaaro Ishihara’s “The Japan that can say no”?
Okay book. Worth reading. Like so many who are passionate about their causes they take three inches worth of facts and stretch them to as many miles.
Yes, that’s the one.
This is eery; take away 60 years, and this tone neatly replicates a tone common in Japan:
“The West has a set of rules, and they gleefully rule the waves and take over distant countries but just let [country name] do a little of the same, and they raise great howls and objection...”
Just drop in “Japan” in the 30’s, or China now, and it’s alllll good...
He was the guy who was for so long cracked up to be this American in Japanese clothes, quintessentially Western, etc.
In fact he was nothing of the sort, and few of them are.
Why do so many Americans thing that love of money or technology ip so facto MAKES a person WESTERN....? Rubbish...
This author doesn’t fully understand the source of China’s economic rise. He believes that road blocks such as the failed Rio Tinto deal slows China down. In reality, this sort of slight is a TEMPORARY setback and builds character in the Chinese people to continue working with the West and the world. To learn to adapt to people’s fears and concerns. China needs to continue on her course as usual and not rock the boat. And as she prospers (and she will continue to prosper), it will be Western nationalists and not Chinese nationalists that will be fuming and gnashing their teeth. I absolutely gurantee it ;)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.