China Developing

The following sections are included:

• Preface

• Acknowledgment

• Contents

After 11 September 2001 many people are asking the question: what sort of desperation drove supposedly intelligent young men and woman to take such cruel, horrible, and ghastly action, and what terribly deep-seated hatred and hopelessness must they have to make them take a seemingly insensible suicidal option. And then the horrible bombing in the London underground on 7 July 2005, and many other bombings in crowded places all seem senseless. Whatever the motives, the mass killing of innocent people has no excuse. The whole ideology behind it must be understood then challenged, the network behind such plots must be checked and the inhumane acts themselves must be stopped…

A critical part of the methodology of understanding the appropriateness of a sociopolitical concept for a particular society is by analyzing it in that society's cultural and historical contexts. One of the most fundamental differences between Western and Asian understandings of important sociopolitical concepts stems from a different view of the concept of personhood. It will be obvious from this discussion that respect for the individual person, which is a basic tenet of contemporary modernity is not the same as individualism of the Western liberal tradition as in the traditional Chinese sense. This difference has significant implications in other prevalent concepts to be studied in this book, and also has implications in Western, especially American, foreign policies. It is essential, then, that we begin our discussion with the concept of personhood…

Whenever we talk about “rights”, we are dealing with legal matters which, in this book, will be discussed in Chapter 6. However, while we have been clarifying the concepts of respect for the individual person and individualism in Chapter 1, it is necessary to have a short chapter just following that to clarify another set of concepts relating to the impact of the last chapter, namely, on the relative importance of human rights and individual rights in developing countries. In Chapter 1, we saw that although the concept of individualism is very prominent and important in Western countries, especially America thinking and foreign policies, it is not necessarily a universal basis of respect for the individuals in all cultures. I noted that individualism has very deep roots in Western civilization, and it tends to emphasize individual liberty versus the state, thereby prioritizing political rights before all other social rights. Here, I am not so naïve as to think that to promote individual rights and liberty of the people in developing countries are the only motives, for instance, behind American foreign policies, but I wish to emphasize the values and concepts in its foreign policies that would naturally ring right and noble in the Western ears…

“Freedom” in this chapter is limited to discussion on freedom of human activities in the sociopolitical spheres, and not in the metaphysical sphere, such as free will versus determinism…

As the purpose of this book does not allow a detailed discussion of the various sociopolitical concepts, I am only sweeping through them to see how a certain understanding and emphasis of them may or may not contribute to development in parts of Asia. Logically, the concept of equality is an aspect of the concept of justice which should be discussed here. But this chapter will concentrate on only one aspect of justice, equality, as it is crucial for developing countries. A detailed discussion of specific aspects of justice in governance will involve detailed discussions on very complicated issues, though one aspect of it will be touched upon in Chapter 5 where I shall be dealing with the legitimacy of who should rule and how a ruler should be determined, i.e., based on John Locke's concern about people's liberty and social justice. But that is one aspect of justice that is not much of an issue when democracy is assumed. The simplistic view of equality is sameness for everyone. The complication comes in implementing equality when everyone is not born with the same physical or socioeconomic and political resources. For instance, some are born physically normal and some with disabilities; some with extreme power of intelligence and artistic talents while some with impairments; some are born into families of dire poverty, while some into families of exceptional wealth and social or political positions. The same treatment would not have equal effects on them. On the contrary, different treatment for some might end up providing more equal opportunity for all. For example, giving scholarships, grants or loans to students from families of less means would equalize the opportunities, or “leveling the playing field”. However, I suggest that a thorough discussion of equality and justice is more appropriate at the fine tuning stage of development, and not at the stage I am considering in this book…

Democracy is probably the most misinterpreted, misunderstood, and misused word. For instance, apart from defining democracy as a political process, see what “democratic” refers to in the following:

(1) “Our family is very democratic”, meaning, in our family, between parents and children, we respect each other.

(2) “That mass rally marching peacefully around town indicated how democratic the society is”, meaning, how free and open the society is.

(3) “The physical punishment that school teachers used on students in the old days was entirely not democratic”, meaning, the teachers did not pay attention to human rights.

(4) “That society is very democratic, whether between the rich and the poor, the healthy and the disabled, or the powerful and the ordinary”, meaning, the society upholds well the value of equality.

All that has been said hitherto in this book would come to nought without the assertions in this chapter. Talk about respect for the individual person, human rights, freedom, equality and democracy would all be mere empty wishes without the guarantee by law and without the government itself respecting the law it has instituted…

As mentioned in the introduction of the book, this is basically a methodological discussion on the intellectual foundation for development in emerging societies. It is not so naïve as to think that many global events are played out by world powers without geopolitical considerations and thier politico-eceonomic self-interests. Despite that awareness, however, it stresses that to think through some socio-economic-political and legal concepts important for developing system in thier nation building is likewise, important. It is of further importance for them to evaluate those understandings and apply them to development according to their own unique historical and cultural identity with their particular rights and reponsibilities in the global community. Otherwise, one would not have an intellectual refrerence to evaluate what to pursue and what not to pursue on that way to development…

The following sections are included:

• References

• Index