https://www.scmp.com/rss/506365/feed Martin Powers has written three books on the history of social justice in China, two of which won the Levenson Prize for best book in pre-1900 Chinese Studies. His recent book, published by Routledge, traces the impact of Chinese political theory and practice on the English Enlightenment. He is currently professor emeritus at the University of Michigan and visiting professor at Peking University. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com As US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s visit to China gets under way, the future of US-China relations teeters in the balance, with calls for war threatening prospects for peace. In that context, Christopher Blattman’s book, Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace, argues that peace is the more rational option. According to political scientist Lionel Beehner, the book explains “why war is hell, and is, as many economists have put it, ‘development in reverse’ … As such, peace is... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3226732/why-us-diplomats-seeking-peace-china-should-look-benjamin-franklins-example?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3226732/why-us-diplomats-seeking-peace-china-should-look-benjamin-franklins-example?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Jul 2023 17:00:29 +0000 Liberalism is much in the news these days, but there is little agreement on what the term means. Joe Biden’s Democracy Summit last December was widely criticised for its double standards, with several of the invited nations embracing some variety of ethno-nationalist populism. Commenting for Al Jazeera on these illiberal invitees, former Barack Obama official Bruce Jentleson worried that the summit might damage, rather than enhance US credibility worldwide. But democracies aren’t always liberal.... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3175672/there-was-time-when-china-and-us-were-both-liberal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3175672/there-was-time-when-china-and-us-were-both-liberal?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 Apr 2022 21:00:24 +0000 Opinion pieces coming out of China in recent months have argued that Western-style democracy isn’t the only kind. China’s “democracy” is adapted to its own tradition, they say, and different democratic systems can coexist peacefully. So far, Western media outlets have largely avoided debating those claims, but if they did, most would reject them as propaganda. After all, everyone knows democracy is, was, and always will be Western. It’s in our blood. Or is it? As early as 2014, a Princeton study... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3159033/china-claims-democracy-isnt-just-western-it-hype-or-history?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3159033/china-claims-democracy-isnt-just-western-it-hype-or-history?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 10 Dec 2021 20:00:22 +0000 Those calling for Anglosphere resistance to China’s rise are framing the matter as a zero-sum battle for freedom, yet British columnist Kenan Malik, in a recent piece for The Guardian, disputes the notion that the “Anglosphere” was ever freedom’s flagship. As early as 1900, American historians imagined a nationalist contest between the English spirit of liberty and the dictatorial spirit of Slavic nations. He wrote: “A century later, it’s not Anglo-Saxon pitted against Slav, but the West against... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3151503/us-china-conflict-not-really-respect-freedom-both-nations-share?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3151503/us-china-conflict-not-really-respect-freedom-both-nations-share?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Oct 2021 21:00:10 +0000 US President Joe Biden assumed office promising a departure from Donald Trump’s disruptive foreign policy, but his administration has embraced the same zero-sum rhetoric where China is concerned. That approach could bifurcate the globe politically and technologically along racial lines, yet the project has instead been promoted as a contest of values. This rhetoric did not begin with Trump. It was adopted by the Washington elite during the 1990s following the publication of Samuel Huntington’s... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3142154/joe-biden-promotes-liberal-values-could-learn-lesson-or-two?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3142154/joe-biden-promotes-liberal-values-could-learn-lesson-or-two?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Jul 2021 09:00:23 +0000 The term “human rights” is properly a feature of the modern world, but people have been calling out cruelty for centuries. Who gets blamed for human tragedy reveals a lot about how a nation values human life. Western nations, chief among them the United States, have long assumed the promotion of human rights as one of their natural duties, but in recent years some have questioned their qualifications for doing so. Last Fall in the journal Foreign Affairs James Goldgeier and Bruce W. Jentleson... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3123893/west-portrays-itself-defender-human-rights-does-it-still-have?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3123893/west-portrays-itself-defender-human-rights-does-it-still-have?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Mar 2021 21:00:08 +0000 It’s hardly news that relations between the United States and China deteriorated rapidly during the final months of Donald Trump’s tenure as president. As detailed in Political Science Quarterly, research shows that when the leaders of one nation acquire a negative image of another, that image tends to stick, and relations can get worse as each side exaggerates the threat posed by the other. Beyond that, China’s political and economic power have begun to rival that of the US. Between close... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3119848/could-bidens-plan-unity-us-help-patch-relations-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3119848/could-bidens-plan-unity-us-help-patch-relations-china?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 31 Jan 2021 01:00:24 +0000 “Let the constitution of a government be what it will, if there is but one man in it exempt from the laws, all the other members must necessarily be at his discretion.” Perhaps we should thank US President Donald Trump for demonstrating the truth of 18th-century French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s insight. Buoyed by “presidential immunity” – a mere supposition, not a law – Trump has shown us how easily a reality television star can render the world’s leading democracy powerless to check... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3110531/china-france-and-thomas-jefferson-history-lessons-trump-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3110531/china-france-and-thomas-jefferson-history-lessons-trump-and?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Nov 2020 21:00:35 +0000 Last month, The Economist argued against engaging in a cold war with China, but concluded by revisiting a Cold War truism, claiming: “America and its allies must prepare for a far longer contest between open societies and China’s state capitalism.” That line sits uncomfortably beside an emerging genre of writing about the demise of democracy in the post-pandemic West. Among others, The Washington Post and The Atlantic have published multiple essays about rampant inequality, the opioid crisis and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3104011/how-coronavirus-pandemic-exposed-dark-side-western-democracy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3104011/how-coronavirus-pandemic-exposed-dark-side-western-democracy?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Oct 2020 09:00:06 +0000 The concepts of “liberty” and “freedom” often get bandied about, especially in regard to Hong Kong, but in the Anglo-American tradition “liberty” can mean two very different things. Be careful which one you choose. Most people think “liberty” means the protection of universal rights, such as the right to a fair trial, rights we enjoy whether we are rich or poor. This is the modern notion of liberty. Because the same word appears in England as early as the Magna Carta, people think the English... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3097626/hong-kong-us-and-britain-truth-about-liberty-will-set-you-free?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3097626/hong-kong-us-and-britain-truth-about-liberty-will-set-you-free?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 17 Aug 2020 21:00:19 +0000 In the United States, if the right and left agree upon anything, it is that China is the enemy, at a deep, cultural level. Liberals do not condone violence against Chinese people, but they may accept as fact the same dehumanising myths used to justify racist bullying: Chinese people have a collectivist mentality; are blindly obedient, and so on. As a historian with years of research on China myths, I believe a deep history of China-bashing can help explain its tenacious hold on the American... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3090305/us-china-bashing-rooted-myths-western-superiority?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3090305/us-china-bashing-rooted-myths-western-superiority?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Jun 2020 21:00:20 +0000