The Useless Tree

Politics

  • Great Leap Famine Denial

    In my other class this semester, contemporary Chinese politics, we are getting ready to consider the Great Leap Famine.  In noodling around the internet in search of the any new bits of information, I have found several examples of what… Continue reading

  • Lin Xiling and the Necessity of Dissent

    A new semester is upon us and I am preparing for this week's classes on Chinese politics.  On Thursday we will be thinking about the big events of the 1950s: the Hundred Flowers Campaign; the Anti-Rightist Movement; the Great Leap… Continue reading

  • Yang Jisheng is a Confucian Sage, and Mao Zedong was an Inhumane Qin Shihuangdi Wannabe

    We hear a lot these days about the revival of Confucianism in China.  Some argue that it will bring something like political meritocracy and moral leadership to the PRC.  But these outcomes are fairly remote, obstructed as they are by… Continue reading

  • When Martin Jacques Fools the World

    Couldn't resist the title, which came to mind after I read this recent BBC commentary by Martin Jacques: "Is China more legitimate than the West?" (his book is entiteld When China Rules the World) There are many problems with the… Continue reading

  • Confucianism and Corruption in the PRC

    My recent post on how a Confucian might understand the corruption surrounding Wen Jiabao sparked a couple of comments that have pushed me to think a bit more about the topic.  But I am thinking more broadly about both Confucianism… Continue reading

  • Has Wen Jiabao Failed the Confucius Test?

    Everyone's talking about the big NYT piece on the vast wealth of the family of China's Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao. At one level this is utterly unsurprising.  This is how the PRC's political economy works. Those people who stand at… Continue reading

  • Romney Fails the Confucian Test

    First, let me stipulate: all politicians evade and dissemble and lie.  And that happens in all regime types: democratic and authoritarian. But within that broad reality, and focusing here on the American political experience, Mitt Romney is setting a new… Continue reading

  • Zhuangzi doesn’t do debates

    He sees right through the rhetorical posturing (Hinton translation): Suppose you and I have an argument.  Suppose you win and I lose.  Does that mean you’re really right and I’m wrong?  Suppose I win and you lose.  Does that mean… Continue reading

  • Chinese Like Democracy

    Party ideologists in the PRC, and their apologists, argue that something like "Western-style" or"American-style" democracy cannot and should not happen in China because of the lack of historical and social and cultural grounding.  That sort of democracy is simply alien… Continue reading

  • Actually, America Must “Lead from Behind” in East Asia

    Aaron Friedberg has a piece in The Diplomat today: "America Cannot 'Lead From Behind' in East Asia."  It is a critique of what he takes to be a shift in US policy toward China, a softening of the US "pivot"… Continue reading