{"id":19875,"date":"2012-04-30T13:37:06","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T05:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinahearsay.com\/?p=12746"},"modified":"2012-04-30T13:37:06","modified_gmt":"2012-04-30T05:37:06","slug":"the-china-envy-straw-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/2012\/04\/30\/the-china-envy-straw-man\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cChina Envy\u201d Straw Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>China is currently observing the May 1st holiday, so news is a bit muted. Actually, some of the more exciting stories here are actively being, um, well, I suppose I can again use the term \u201cmuted\u201d but in a more aggressive sense. Sometimes in China a \u201cslow news day\u201d is part happenstance, part official plan.<\/p>\n

But what I\u2019d rather talk about is an age-old issue in American (and Chinese) politics: nationalists vs. critics. The former hide behind the flag, raising their heads only to snipe at anyone who dares criticize the Motherland<\/span> (the Fatherland?)<\/span> home.<\/p>\n

The nationalists have many arrows in their quiver, one being the classic \u201cIf you hate [insert country name here] so much, why don\u2019t you leave?\u201d Another is \u201cIf you love [insert country name here] so much, why don\u2019t you go live there?\u201d<\/p>\n

This second tactic is used whenever a critic has the temerity to suggest that the home country is not perfect and might wish to emulate something about another nation. This is a cardinal sin among the chest beater crowd.<\/p>\n

At the same time, keep in mind that this posturing is fundamentally disingenuous. In American politics, nationalists are quick to vilify anyone who suggests that the US of A might have some problems, for example, with its health care system. If someone says that the French have better health care, that\u2019s when you hear the usual \u201cSo why don\u2019t you go live there?\u201d<\/p>\n

However, these same \u201cAmerica is perfect\u201d folks do not have a problem stating that the US is on the verge of complete and utter economic, cultural and political collapse because of President Obama<\/span> Secular Humanists<\/span> The Gays<\/span> Liberal Bloggers<\/span> anyone they dislike or see as a threat. Cognitive dissonance? Not a problem.<\/p>\n

This little rhetorical drama plays out with respect to US-China relations when someone in one country is brave enough to say that lessons can be learned from the other nation. In response, sane people could say \u201cYes, let\u2019s take a look at that. If there is something useful, we could implement that policy here and make our country better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ha ha ha. Of course life doesn\u2019t work that way. \u201cReal\u201d patriots cannot go down that path, because by doing so, they would have to admit that their country isn\u2019t perfect. And we can\u2019t have that.<\/p>\n

The American nationalists have a little trick for going after anyone who says Beijing might be doing something better than Washington. They create a straw man, which we can call \u201cChina Envy,\u201d and then demonstrate how ill-advised it is.<\/p>\n

Rich Lowry of the National Review<\/a> recently showed how it\u2019s done in a cheeky Op\/Ed entitled “The End of China Envy?”:<\/p>\n

China-envying New York Times<\/em> columnist Thomas Friedman likes to muse about how wonderful it would be if the United States could be like China for a day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That was the lede. Lowry then proceeded to discuss a number of problems that China is now experiencing, from political scandal to corruption. It\u2019s actually not a bad Op\/Ed, if all you\u2019re looking for is a description of current China problems.<\/p>\n

But that wasn\u2019t Lowry\u2019s intent. As the lede shows, he is going after Friedman for his \u201cChina Envy.\u201d Friedman has been guilty of bemoaning the inability of Washington politicos to make a decision, and has mused on occasion that it would be nice if D.C. could learn a thing or two about decision-making from Beijing.<\/p>\n

As dysfunctional as Washington is, \u201cpatriots\u201d like Lowry cannot accept that Beijing might be doing some things better, so an attack on Friedman is necessary for self-validation. Enter the straw man.<\/p>\n

The existence of China envy is a testament to the allure of 9 percent GDP growth coupled with a few fashionable policies like support for high-speed rail and solar energy. On this basis, Friedman calls China\u2019s rulers a \u201creasonably enlightened group of people.\u201d Their spectacular repression, greed, and Sopranos-like power struggles notwithstanding.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You see, Friedman never says that the US should emulate everything about China. In fact, even the most vocal supporters of the so-called \u201cChina Model\u201d never suggest that the US should simply switch over to socialism with Chinese characteristics.<\/p>\n

Sneaky guys like Lowry though are happy to blur that distinction, and indeed, his reference to growth and \u201cfashionable policies\u201d is a tacit admission that critics like Friedman are cherry picking things they like about China. The thing is, if they can pretend that Friedman is calling for the US to establish authoritarian capitalism in America, then their argument is easy. All they have to do is what Lowry did in his Op\/Ed: list a few of the most significant challenges currently facing China and suggest that this taints everything that happens over here. And in conclusion, all they have to say is \u201cDo you really want all that?\u201d<\/p>\n

If the answer is \u201cOf course we don\u2019t want those problems in the US,\u201d then Lowry and his ilk can then pounce and say \u201cThen Friedman is wrong and should shut up. There is nothing we can learn from China.\u201d Thus endeth China Envy.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if anyone actually falls for these kinds of rhetorical games, but the nationalists keep trying anyway, in both countries. It\u2019s a classic. Remember the response to critics of the Iraq War? \u201cSo you\u2019d rather have Saddam Hussein back in power, then?\u201d<\/p>\n

Nationalism is inherently irrational, so I really shouldn\u2019t be surprised by all this. But to anyone who thinks Lowry effectively torpedoed Friedman’s support for a few specific China policies, you’re fooling yourself.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a9 Stan for China Hearsay<\/a>, 2012. |\nPermalink<\/a> |\n4 comments<\/a> |\nAdd to\ndel.icio.us<\/a>\n\nPost tags: nationalism<\/a>\n<\/small><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If my country is perfect, then I can't accept that anything about your country is better. And I'm certainly not going to try to learn anything from foreigners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[149,194,234],"tags":[7782],"class_list":["post-19875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nationalism","category-news-chinese-law","category-u-s-china-relations","tag-nationalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}