Chapter Six: THE UNIVERSALITY APTITUDE

Referring to the contrasting ways in which China and the West see their roles in the world, Martin Jacques expressed: “They both, in a sense, regarded themselves to be universal … Europe interpreted this proposition essentially as an evangelizing mission to transform the world. To take the message of civilization to those who were not civilized through the colonial mission, through Christianity, through the language, through the culture, and so on. China’s interpretation of universality was entirely different. China did not see it in terms of externalizing itself. Because the Chinese idea of universalism was we are the Middle Kingdom. We are the land under Heaven. We are the highest form of civilization. So, why leave China? What’s the point of leaving China when is it where we are all that could be? So the Chinese interpretation of its universalism was essentially a stay-at-home universalism, whereas the European version was to go overseas, to go around the world”. Kishore Mahbubani agrees with this vision, saying: “The Chinese mind has always focused on developing Chinese civilization, not developing global civilization”.