The Mind(s) of China: Don’t Deeds Speak Louder Than Words?

Abstract

Asian Perspective 40 (2016), 753-757 BOOK REVIEW ESSAY The Mind(s) of China: Don't Deeds Speak Louder Than Words? Walter C. Clemens Jr. Christopher A. Ford. China Looks at the West: Identity, Global Ambitions, and the Future ofSino-American Relations. Lex­ ington: University Press of Kentucky, 2015. Fred Dallmayr and Zhao Tingyang, eds. Contemporary Chinese Political Thought: Debates and Perspectives. Lexington: Uni­ versity Press of Kentucky, 2012. Ren Xiao. “Ideas Change Matters: China’s Practices and the East Asian Peace.” Asian Perspective, vol. 40, no. 2 (2016), pp. 329-355. Seok-Hyun Hong. “Bring the Tigers into the Trees: The Rise of China and the Future American Role in Asia.” Global Asia, vol. 11, no. 1 (Spring 2016), pp. 63-69. Recognizing the importance to world peace of China's relations with the United States, it is natural to ask how each side views its place in the world and its relationship with the other great power. The daily news confirms that US leaders disagree with each other on these questions. Learning about China’s mind or minds is more difficult. The less outsiders know about an authoritarian political sys­ tem, the more they are tempted to assume that the system not only speaks with one voice but also thinks in some uniform way. But as time passes and revelations from inside the system appear, we often see that ostensible uniformity masks internal complexity and even discord. Thus, Nikita Khrushchev’s Cuba missile gambit and John F. Kennedy’s response were shaped not only by a strate­ gic logic but also by bureaucratic routines and partisan/factional 753 754 The Mind(s) of China political struggles (Allison and Zelikow 1999). Probably every large polity will experience similar influences on policymaking and implementation. The personal ambitions and propensities of top leaders will also shape both politics and policy. Thus, the Great Helmsman Mao Zedong faced strong challenges from rivals such as Lin Biao and more muted disagreement by Zhou Enlai and others.1 Given the epistemological problems, outsiders must hesitate before assuming that a top leader’s preferences are backed by his entourage and public. Indeed, Christopher Ford devotes the first three chapters of China Looks at the West to “the challenges of Sinological epistemology.” Ford’s response to these challenges is to focus on official Chinese statements to see what they reveal about official attitudes and policies. Mutual understanding is also complicated by linguistics. Words such as democracy can carry very different meanings in different languages and contexts. Going back more than a century, Ford shows how democracy and the US model meant something different for Sun Yat-sen and other Chinese leaders from what US leaders and citizens understood. Looking beyond officially sanctioned statements, the diversity of Chinese perspectives is manifest in the debates and perspec­ tives recorded in Contemporary Chinese Political Thought. This anthology, edited by Fred Dallmayr and Zhao Tingyang, contains deep analyses by academics in Beijing, Taipei, Hong Kong, Aus­ tralia, and the United States. The nuanced views presented here are epitomized in Zhao Tingyang’s chapter, “All-Under-Heaven and Methodological Relationism: An Old Story and New World Peace.” Here, and elsewhere, Chinese authors demonstrate their familiarity with Western writings and criticisms of Chinese poli­ cies. Western sinologists also demonstrate their knowledge of Chinese perspectives, but relatively few Western political analysts can use Chinese language sources. Having studied Chinese language sources and met with many Chinese leaders and military analysts, veteran US sinologist Michael Pillsbury warns that Chinese elites are rather united in support of a hundred-year marathon to replace the United States as world hegemon.2 Ford’s book, however, shows this view to be Walter C. Clemens Jr. 755 an oversimplification. China has been of at least two minds about the United States, he writes. He calls these two strands of Chinese thought “aspirational” (positive, emulative) and “oppositional.”3 Since the time of Deng Xiaoping, Chinese politicians and political writers have agreed that China is rising, but they have disagreed on whether—and when—China’s ascent portends armed conflict with the United States. The more that Chinese president Xi Jinping represses dissent and pushes to mobilize the country’s...