Letters | The West doesn’t understand why China is ahead

Readers discuss Western failure to grapple with Chinese thinking, and the profit motive behind tragedies involving buildings

Reading Time:2 minutes

People visit the Zhanqiao bridge in Qingdao in east China’s Shandong province on September 29. China is using the market economy to build a modern economy and society. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 2:30pm, 3 Oct 2023

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The Western media is regularly assailed with explanations of Chinese policies by those based in the Western system, but not by their Chinese opposite numbers maligning Western policies in public.

The Chinese know us very well, and non-ideologically. We do not understand them because our think tanks must first condemn Marx’s thinking. The Chinese are much more balanced in their appraisal of capitalism.

We do not understand their thinking. We do not understand that planning is at their core.

Karl Marx is widely read in China, unlike in the West. But he is not their source. China’s many historical figures have much more influence on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s seniors than Marx. Their core philosophy is Chinese: 50 years of battling with Chinese negotiators has taught me that China is Chinese.

China is using the market economy to build a modern economy and society. It does not follow capitalism or socialism.

Until we understand what that means, the Chinese will carry on, untouched by pathetic attempts to hamper Huawei. We think Huawei was created to disrupt and spy on the West. Wrong. It was created to lead China in the digital world. It is not focused on its competitors, it is focused on Chinese modernity.