Oh So Much China

Reading an interesting article about China's emerging grand vision, as described by a British Labor-backed think tank. The author's a bit in love with his own voice (not that I know what's that like at all) so take it with a grain of salt, but there's an awful lot of good stuff in there too. For example:

The idea that Chinese are all striving for the American Way of Life, as Richard Madsen has observed, is a dangerous misconception. They are striving to make The Chinese Way of Life. As a result, Chinese development has a certain kind of prideful, internal energy that helps the nations confidence.

or this:

The pursuit of stable reform itself now serves as one of the regimes major claims to its monopoly on power, a shift from regime justification based on ideology to one based on competence. "You know we are often chastised about human rights or democracy", one of the most influential of Chinas current top leaders told me. "But frankly, if we pull 1.3 billion people up out of poverty, that will be one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of mankind. We will work on the other things. But, really, I have to tell you that I think lifting 1.3 billion people out of poverty is enough for my lifetime."

They may be commies, but dumb they ain't.

The article, by the way, is The Beijing Consensus, from the Foreign Policy Centre in the UK. I'd reccomend a read.