The Useless Tree

Politics

  • Deng Xiaoping was not a Confucian gentleman

    Just ordered a copy of Ezra Vogel's new biography of Deng Xiaoping.  I look forward to reading it; biography affords a certain immediacy and specificity when working through dynamic historical periods.   The reviews have started to come in already.… Continue reading

  • American Confucianism: not without an accomodation with Liberalism

    A Chinese philosophy friend sent along a paper (unpublished, not for citation) the other day which started to consider how Confucianism might gain greater practical acceptance in the US.  I will respect his wishes and not divulge more about the… Continue reading

  • Obama’s Successful Taoist Foreign Policy

    If things keep going in Libya, and Gahdafi is finally vanquished, it would appear that Obama's Tao-esque "leading from behind" foreign policy, has worked. That's what Blake Hounshell argues in any event.  And that's what the Daodejing tells us as… Continue reading

  • The Irrepublicans

    The debates about raising the debt ceiling are heating up.  For someone of my age and background the whole thing is rather extraordinary.   It used to be that the Republicans were reliably the party of finance capital, making sure… Continue reading

  • Mozi and the denial of politics

    Wow… it's been two weeks since my last post.  The blog silence is due to summer torpor (rather hot here…) and some other writing distractions (projects past due but now done – hooray!)   One of those diversions is an… Continue reading

  • Chinese Liberalism

    Nice to see the piece over at the WSJ by Liu Junning, "The Ancient Roots of Chinese Liberalism."  Liu is a well known Chinese intellectual, and has worked hard since the 1980's to fashion a contemporary Chinese liberalism.  He argued… Continue reading

  • When did Jiang Zemin Die?

    Rumors have been circulating in Beijing the last day or two about the absence of former CCP General Secretary Jiang Zemin from Friday's big 90th anniversary Party.  And now the Chinese internet censors have taken fairly assertive action to block… Continue reading

  • Ninety Years of the Chinese Communist Party

    Ninety years ago today, the Chinese Communist Party was founded in Shanghai.  There's a big celebration in Beijing, and Chinese media are in overdrive reporting on the successes of the Party.  To round out the picture a bit, I thought… Continue reading

  • How Mencius Undermines Tyrants

    I was reminded today of Mencius as I read this op-ed piece in the NYT: "How Tyrants Endure".   First a bit of background… Mencius is associated with the concept of "right of rebellion:" if a ruler is behaving badly,… Continue reading

  • More on Understanding China

    I've been away for a bit, giving lectures in Chicago and Milwaukee, and that, and other things, have distracted me from blogging.  But I received various responses on the last post below and those replies have sparked some other thoughts… Continue reading