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Tai De is (kind of) corresponding with German authorities, concerning Confucius Institutes in Lower Saxony. Either a guest post by Tai De, or an interview with him, is in the pipeline. Stay tuned.
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Related
» State Department Directive, May 24, 2012
» No Communists at Deutsche Welle, March 11, 2012
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Main Link: Huanqiu Shibao, May 24, 2012, 03:29.
Translated off the reel, and posted right away. A link to the State-Department directive can be found under footnote 2. Links within blockquote added during translation.
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A notice issued by U.S. State Department officials on May 17, to all Confucius Institutes in America, has caused great controversy. The new notice requires existing Confucius Institutes to apply for American “certification”, to become part of regular courses, and bans Chinese teachers and volunteers to teach in middle and elementary schools. A Hanban responsible, on May 23, expressed “shock” to a Huanqiu Shibao reporter, as no consultations had preceded this notice. Insiders told this reporter that to date, American officials hadn’t explained to whom the Confucius Institutes should turn for certification. U.S. “Higher Education News”1) wrote on May 21 that the notice would disrupt Confucius Institute teaching activities. “People don’t undersstand the State Department’s sudden notice. Actually, Confucius Institutes have been on American campuses for almost ten years.” An insider told the Global Times reporter on May 23 that currently, Confucius Institutes were highly successful and influential in America, that many Americans learned Chinese, and that America was somewhat worried about this. In addition, it was election year in America, and political consideration could be behind the measures taken.
美国国务院官员签发的一项公告5月17日发往全美孔子学院，引起巨大争议。新公告规定现有孔子学院必须申请美国“认证”，成为正式课程的一部分，且禁止中方教师和志愿者在美国中小学的孔子学堂教学。国家汉办负责人23日向《环球时报》记者表示，对美方在事先没有任何协商的情况下发出这样的公告感到“震惊”。有知情者告诉《环球时报》记者，孔子学院不计学分，不授学位，不具认证的前提，美国官方迄今也从未说明孔子学院应该向谁认证。美国“高等教育新闻”网站21日载文称，国务院这一公告将打乱孔子学院的教学活动。“人们不明白美国国务院为何突然出台此项公告，毕竟，孔子学院在美国校园内已有近十年时间”。一名了解内幕的人士23日向《环球时报》记者介绍，目前孔子学院在美国搞得很成功，影响很大，美国学习汉语的人很多，美方对此有所担心。再加上今年又是美国的大选年，美国出台这些措施可能有政治方面的考量。The notice was reportedly issued by Robin Lerner, the State Department Deputy Secretary in charge of Educatonal and Cultural Matters and private-sector exchange. The notice says that while Confucius Institutes may be beneficial to promoting cultural exchange, its activities “need to be in accordance with the standards of exchange, and respect the relevant law and regulations”. “Professors, researchers, short-term visiting scholars or institutes, as well as students, were not allowed to teach in primary schools2). [...] The notice also says that “to ensure that the Confucius Institute education corresponds with and maintains suitable regulations and standards, the Institutes must apply for American certification”, “on initial examination, it isn’t clear if the Confucius Institutes will get American certification”. The State Department allows currently teaching Confucius Institute teachers with J-1 visa to continue teaching until the end of the school year in June, but won’t renew their visas. If they wish, they can return to China to apply for appropriate exchange project visas.
据悉，签发这一公告的是美国国务院负责教育和文化事务局私营部门交流的副助理秘书长罗宾•勒纳。公告称，尽管孔子学院可能有益于促进文化交流，但其所从事的活动“必须符合正确的交流规范，遵循相关法规”。“教授、研究学者、短期访问学者或学院、大学学生不允许在公立和私立小、中学教学，否则便与有关交流访问项目法规相违。 [.....] ”公告还称，“为确保孔子学院的教育符合和保持适合的规定标准，孔子学院必须申请美国认证”，“美国国务院的初步审视并不清楚这些孔子学院是否得到美国认证”。美国务院允许目前持有J-1签证的孔子学院教师继续留至2012年6月本学年结束，但不会为他们续签签证。如果他们愿意，可回中国再申办一种合适的交流项目签证。There are Confucius Institutes at 81 American universities. The notice has caused wide-spread shock, confusion, and incomprehension. Confucius Institutes in all places said that the notice was “surprising” or “unusual”, and there were discussions everywhere as to how to deal [with the situation]. Huanqiu Shibao has learned that J-1 visas are a kind of non-immigration visas, issued to foreigners who participate in “exchange and visitor programs approved by the State Department”. An official survey concerning J-1 visa holders was carried out early this year.
81所美国大学内设有孔子学院。这一公告已引起广泛的震惊、困惑和不解，各地孔子学院均表示此项公告“令人吃惊”、“很不寻常”，都在讨论如何应对。《环球时报》记者了解到，J－1签证是一种非移民签证，签发给来美国参加美国国务院批准的“交流访问者计划”的各类外籍人士。今年年初，美国官方曾对持有J－1签证人员情况进行过调查。A lady who had taught for Confucius Institutes in America told Huanqiu Shibao on May 23 that teachers sent by China to teach abroad were mainly government-sponsored, or volunteers. They all held visitor J-1 visas. She had been a volunteer, and a visa had been rather easy to obtain.
一名曾在美国孔子学院授课的女士23日向《环球时报》记者介绍，中方派驻国外孔子学院的授课老师主要有公派教师和志愿者两种，他们所持的都是访问学者J-1签证。她当时就是作为志愿者授课的，获得签证比较容易。What people find most incomprehensible is that American officialdom requires Confucius Institutes to carry out so-called “certification”. Huanqiu Shibao has learned that to date, the State Department has not said where Confucius Institutes should turn for certification. By comparison, nothing has been heard of German Goethe Institutes, French Institutes or other cultural exchange bodies in America having received American certification. People in charge at the first Confucius Institutes established in the U.S., University of Maryland Confucius Institute and George Mason University Confucius Institute, express confusion, and say that the “certification” issue is currently being discussed. The person in charge at the George Mason University Confucius Institute hopes that the notification came without political considerations. After all, Obama’s initiative to have 100,000 students study in China was about encouraging American students to study Chinese.
令人最为不解的是美国官方要求对孔子学院进行所谓“认证”。据《环球时报》记者了解，美国官方迄今从未说明孔子学院应该向谁认证。横向比较一下，从未听说德国的歌德学院、法国的法语联盟等在美文化交流机构须得到美国认证。在接受本报记者采访时，美国第一家孔子学院———马里兰大学孔子学院及乔治•梅森大学孔子学院负责人均表示，对这一公告感到困惑，校方均在就“认证”一事进行讨论与沟通。乔治•梅森大学孔子学院负责人说，希望国务院出台的公告没有政治方面的考虑，毕竟奥巴马推动美国10万学生赴华留学项目也是鼓励美国学生学习中文。According to explanations by a Hanban person in charge, made to Huanqiu Shibao, Hanban has sent a letter to university presidents, to carry out negotiations. The letter says that Confucius Institutes in America were established at American requests, and run in cooperation with Hanban and Chinese institutions of higher education. The Chinese side fully respected the esteemed universities’ powers to make their own decisions (自主权)3), and there had never been special instructions concerning the teaching and cultural-exchange activities carried out by the Institutes. The central office provided help, such as support in that it sent volunteers, as requested by the American side. The letter also says that the Chinese side respects American governmental law and regulations, but that in this process, we do not wish to see that volunteer projects get disrupted, as this would lead to many quickly-developing Chinese-language classes coming to an untimely end, resulting in losses for the schools and students.
据国家汉办负责人23日向《环球时报》记者介绍，该机构已致信下设孔子课堂的美国大学校长，就此事进行交涉。信中表示，美国孔子学院是由美方自愿申请，并与汉办和中方高校合作举办的。中方充分尊重贵校的办学自主权，对孔子学院开设课程和开展文化交流活动及下设孔子课堂，从未有过专门指令。总部向孔子学院提供的包括派遣志愿者在内的所有帮助，均系美方所要求。信中还表示，中方尊重美国政府的法律和规定，但在此过程中，我们不愿意看到因此而造成中断志愿者项目的后果，否则将会导致很多学校蒸蒸日上的中文课程由于教师缺失而被迫夭折，致使这些学校和学生蒙受损失。The person in charge also said that before volunteers head for America, they get an invitation from the American schools, in accordance with the Sino-American school agreements, and apply for and obtain a visa. From 2005 on, China had developed Chinese language education to help America, and had sent more than 2,100 teachers. The project had always worked smoothly. It had been believed that once teachers received an American invitation, the application would lead to a visa, and that there would be no problems. No consultations had preceded the State Department’s May-17 notice, and this was felt to be very sudden and surprising by those in charge at the Confucius Institutes.
这位负责人还表示，志愿者赴美前，是按照中美双方学校的协议，接受美方学校的邀请，申请并获准签证的。从2005年起，中方为帮助美国发展汉语教学，已派出2100多名教师，项目执行一直很顺利。原以为教师接受美方邀请，申请并获准了赴美签证，就不会产生问题。在事先没有任何协商的情况下，美国国务院5月17日发布公告，作为主管孔子学院的负责人，他感到很突然、很吃惊。Many presidents [of universities with Confucius Institutes] were disgusted by the State Department notice, and had many objections, as they believed it interfered with their universities’ autonomy3). They currently contacted the State Department and negotiated. Huanqiu Shibao also learned that to address the doubts, a State-Department official was to be sent to Maryland University to have direct talks with people in charge at the university and the Confucius Institute.
美国多所设有孔子学院的大学校长对美国这一公告非常反感，很有意见，认为它干涉了学校的办学自主权，目前正与美国国务院进行联系和交涉。《环球时报》记者还了解到，面对质疑，美国国务院官员23日将赴马里兰大学，与马里兰大学校方、孔子学院负责人一起进行面对面的沟通与交流。
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Notes
1) This is my translation of 美国“高等教育新闻”网站 – the website’s real name may be different.
2) Quote:
Teaching positions in primary and secondary schools (K-12) are only authorized under the “Teacher” category set forth at 22 CFR 62.24. Teaching primary and secondary school students in public school systems or private schools is not permitted by professors, research scholars, short-term scholars, or college/university students.
(Guidance Directive 2012-06 Exchange Visitor Program – Confucius Institutes)
3) 自主权, which may be translated either as the right to make decisions of one’s own, or autonomy. The term for provincial or territorial autonomy in China, for places like Tibet, would be 自治区 (autonomous regions), and is therefore not exactly the same term.
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Related
» Three Eight-Hundreds, April 19, 2009
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Scheiße, ich muss im Golf nach Hause fahren.
I don’t know who’s angrier. Is it those who wave cartoons of the prophet (Mohamed) around to make some Salafists explode – and to hurt the feelings of Muslims who may feel angry, saddened, or who won’t care (yes, that happens, too)? Or is it the Salafists who are angrier?
Police people may be angry, too, because they have to bear the brunt of keeping idiots on both sides apart from each other – and to expose themselves to danger. Police people have more reasons to be angry than anyone else, in my view.
But I seem to understand that a free society can either live with Salafists who are handing out Korans, and with people who are waving Mohamed cartoons around, or it isn’t much of a free society after all.
[Links within blockquotes aren't part of the original paragraphs - JR]
Helmut Schmidt, former German chancellor,
is in Singapore to tap [Singapore's former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew's] views on international affairs for a book that he is writing. The interview on Saturday lasted three hours, and two more interviews of similar length are scheduled over the next two days,
reports the Straits Times (Sunday Times).
Lianhe Zaobao (UDN, 联合早报, Singapore) points out that
in 2006, [Schmidt] published “Our Neighbor China”, explaining that Europe should maintain a friendly relationship with China, [a book] which caused wide-spread attention. In an interview, Schmidt once said that Lee Kuan Yew understood China better than he did. Lee Kuan Yew said at a Future China Global Forum banquet in July last year that besides China’s Deng Xiaoping and America’s former president Bill Clinton, Schmidt, too, was an outstanding leader.
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Related
» Helmut Schmidt and the Korean War, March 1, 2012
» A Division of Labor that can’t work, Febr 23, 2010
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Huanqiu Shibao, April 23
French Pesidential Nominees play the China Card, Sarkozy says he Pays Close Attention to Tibetan Issue (法总统竞选打出中国牌 萨科齐称关注西藏问题)
From our France, Germany, Britain, U.S., Russia correspondents
Huanqiu Shibao reports that an anti-Chinese overseas exile Tibetan website reported on April 21 that during the April 22 presidential elections, Dalai supporters and French paper “Nouvel Observateur” addressed the Tibetan issue. From ten nominees, nine affirmed that they would meet with the Dalai. The report says that Sarkozy told the “Nouvel Observateur that “he frequently addressed the Tibet issue in talks with Chinese leaders”, and that “Tibet is an important topic for the French people, and for me”. Hollande said that the Dalai was a “respected religious personality, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and he abandoned all political roles. Therefore, I have no reason to refuse a meeting with him”.
据4月23日出版的《环球时报》报道，一家海外流亡藏人反华网站21日报道称，法国22日迎来第一轮总统大选，达赖支持者和法国《新观察家报》提出有关西藏问题。10个竞选人有9个证实，他们将会见达赖。报道称，萨科齐对《新观察家报》表示，他经常“向中国领导人提起西藏问题”，还称：“西藏对法国人民和我本人来说是一个重要议题。”奥朗德声称，达赖是一个“受尊敬的宗教人物，诺贝尔奖得主，他已放弃任何政治角色。所以，我没有理由拒绝与其会面。”
A Chinese person living abroad told “Huanqiu Shibao” on April 22 that some countries in Europe have not abandoned “democratic” etc. issues as means of pressure on China, and provocative intentions. However, under the current difficult economic difficulties, some comparatively reasonable politicians could exercise some restraint. China’s tough stance could leave some politicians with no choice but to face the realities. If they were provocative, they would certainly have to pay a price.
一名旅居欧洲的华人22日对《环球时报》说，欧洲一些国家没有放弃在“民主”等问题上对中国施压、挑衅的意图，不过，在当前经济困窘的情况下，一些相对理性的政客可能会选择克制。从之前的事件来看，中国展示强硬立场会让一些政客不得不面对现实，他们如果挑衅，肯定得付出代价。
Beijing Normal University Political Science and International Relations department deputy director Zhang Shengjun told “Huanqiu Shibao” that these presidential elections wouldn’t change French China policies on the whole. Chinese-French relations didn’t show great conflicts of interests, and all of Europe was actively seeking cooperation with China to solve the European sovereign debt crisis.
北京师范大学政治学与国际关系学院副院长张胜军对《环球时报》说，这次总统选举的结果整体上不会改变法国对华政策。中法之间没有较大的利益冲突，整个欧洲都在解决欧债危机上积极与中国寻求合作。
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Le Nouvel Observateur, April 17, 2012
Dalai Lama – what the Candidates say (Ce qu’en disent les candidats)
Question five: Once you are president, will you receive the Dalai Lama? (Question n°5 : Une fois Président, recevrez-vous le dalaï-lama ?)
Nicolas Sarkozy:
I remind you that I’m the only president of the French Republic who talked with the Dalai Lama. That was in 2008. I also had the opportunity on several other occasions to talk about the Tibetan situation with the Chinese president. Of course, I intend to continue doing so. Tibet is an important topic for the French, just as for me. As far as the Dalai Lama is concerned, as a matter of principle, I’m not forbidding myself anything.
“Je vous rappelle que je suis le seul Président de la République française à m’être entretenu avec le dalaï-lama. C’était en 2008. J’ai par ailleurs eu à plusieurs reprises l’occasion de parler de la situation du Tibet avec le Président chinois. Mon intention est bien sûr de continuer à le faire. Le Tibet est un sujet important pour les Français, comme pour moi. S’agissant du dalaï-lama, par principe, je ne m’interdis rien.”
Francois Hollande:
The Dalai Lama is a respected religious personality, and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He has abandoned all political functions. I have no reason to refuse meeting him a priori. This will, of course, depend on the context of the appropriate time.
“Le dalaï-lama est une personnalité religieuse respectée, prix Nobel de la paix. Il a abandonné toute fonction politique. Je n’ai pas de raison de refuser a priori de le rencontrer. Cela dépendra évidemment du contexte le moment venu.”
Francois Bayrou:
If the Dalai Lama wishes to meet me, I will receive him, of course.
“Si le dalaï-lama souhaite me rencontrer je le recevrai naturellement.”
[...]
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Related
The Patriotic Road Abroad, August 15, 2009
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Angela Merkel and Wen Jiabao opened the Hannover Messe (Hanover Fair) last Sunday (April 22).
Wen Jiabao and the Three Chancellors, Neue Presse, Hanover
Wen Jiabao would stay at Kastens Hotel Luisenhof, Hanover’s Neue Presse informed its readers on April 21 (Saturday). There, he would also receive former chancellors Helmut Schmidt and Gerhard Schröder. Neither of the two had to travel very far – Schmidt lives in Hamburg, and Hanover is Schröder’s home town.
The way the Neue Presse presented the Dreikanzlertreffen (Merkel, Schröder, Schmidt) could have been designed by the Chinese propaganda department itself – but no worries, the coverage probably wasn’t even driven by business interests in the first place. Just as – I believe – Schmidt and Schröder (Merkel much less so), the German public in general is quite susceptible to flattery. When a foreign guest shows our old chanclellors (and Schmidt in particular) respect, he must be a good guy, basically.
Besides, if there is something like a (well-performing) soft-power Wunderwaffe for the CCP in Germany, it must be Helmut Schmidt. Less than three months before Wen’s Hanover visit, Schmidt had helped to inaugurate a series of “dialogs” about Chinese-German relations, in the framework of the China Cultural Year 2012, and didn’t shrink from any platitude (“the West must learn to understand today’s China” and “you can’t understand it without knowing China’s past”), any detail (Zheng He’s junks sailed under lateens), or any adulation (“China’s capability to conquer other states and to subordinate was there, but it wasn’t used or misused”). He mentioned Chinese problems, too – pretty much the way Wen Jiabao would describe them, too.
The Wen-Schmidt meeting, Xinhua/People’s Daily (English) covererage suggests, appeared to have the characteristics of a meeting between active statesmen.
I’m not too familiar with Edward Heath, and even if a certain Bruce Anderson – himself no credible man in every field – is right, I still wouldn’t put Schmidt into Heath’s league of useful idiocy*) – a term that struck a chord with me when I heard it on the BBC:
I’m afraid Edward Heath had a monstrous bladder of vanity. He liked going to China, because in China, he was treated not barely as a head of government; he was ratcheted as a head of state. He was treated with flattery, [presumptuousness], as if he was still in power, as if he was a great man. And I’m afraid he doesn’t come out well from this episode. All his critical faculties were overwhelmed. As long as they patted his tummy, he was prepared to roll over like a pet Panda.
Even if Chinese public diplomacy doesn’t work too well on the German public yet, Beijing does have a strong asset in place in this country. The Neue Presse frontpage of last week bears testimony to that. Schmidt may not roll over like a pet Panda – but he is doing a great job anyway.
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Note
*) John Sweeney, “Useful Idiots”, BBC, first broadcast on August 11, 2010
Downloads here »
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Related
» Message to a Barbarian, June 26, 2011
» Industriousness and Wisdom, January 9, 2011
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A Guest Post by Tai De
Thomas Straubhaar heads the Hamburgisches Weltwirtschaftsinstitut, or Hamburg Institute of International Economics, a not-for-profit research institute, an enthusiastic buyer of local goods, he says. Clearly, he doesn’t like long-distance rides – and he doesn’t like the commuter tax allowance. It only helped well-to-do sole earners. Families weren’t the real beneficiaries, and society had to bear costs from traffic jams, greater risks of accidents, and urban sprawl. Rather, commuters should pay an additional tax, to compensate the urban population for the harm commuters inflicted on them (“damit könnten Städter für das Leid entschädigt werden, das ihnen Auto fahrende Pendler antun”).
I don’t believe that Straubhaar is really targeting the commuter tax allowance – if any political party supports it his move, it would be the Greens, but the allowance won’t go away. The Free Democrats (FDP) rather favors an increased allowance, to compensate commuters for rising petrol prices. And the two big parties, the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and the social democrats (SPD) won’t dare to alienate their classical voters – even if Straubhaar doesn’t believe it:
“Wouldn’t a commuter tax go down well with the millions of urban people? Why don’t politicians seize the opportunity?” (Wäre nicht die Pendlersteuer eine Forderung, mit der sich bei Millionen von Stadtmenschen politisch punkten ließe? Wieso nutzen Politiker(innen) diese Chance nicht?)
Who is well-to-do may be a matter of definition – but those targeted may not feel that they were well-to-do (with or without reason). However, it is easy to label your target well-to-do before making unpopular suggestions, and Mr. Straubhaar’s suggestion isn’t popular. Maybe it is because people don’t buy the allegation that the beneficiaries of the allowance are generally well-to-do. Maybe Mr. Straubhaar himself is way too well-to-do to be believed. At any rate, it seems to me that in Mr. Straubhaar’s view, the Hamburg city is too chique to tolerate all those country bumpkins there. After all, the German word for “harm” is “Leid” – and Leid is something a perpetrator inflicts on a victim.
The comments underneath the Welt article with quotes from Straubhaar seem to confirm my impression that politicians who would “seize the opportunity” and scrap the allowance wouldn’t do themselves a favour. There is no real discussion. Straubhaar seems to hate his audience, and his audience hates him back.
Straubhaar may not like it – and the Free Democrats, at odds with him concerning the commuter tax allowance, but not in general – may not like it either, but West Germany’s post-war consensus was built on exactly the allowances and financial transfers (welfare state) which he calls into question.
This comment by “Systemkritiker” (system critic) is indicative of the general mood on the “Die Welt” thread:
Great. New taxes. Then we will get even more big cities because everyone needs to go there, and even more welfare recipients, because people are jobless. That guy is deranged. Just like all politicians. Said it and boarded his fat [Audi ] A8. Blithering idiots give us counsel. (Richtig so. Neue Steuern. Dann haben wir endlich noch mehr Großstädte weil alle hinziehen müssen und noch mehr Hilfsempfänger weil sie keinen Job mehr haben. Der Typ ist doch gestört. Wie alle Politiker auch.
Sprachs und setzte sich in den fetten A8.
Dummschwätzer regieren und beraten uns.)
And that’s still sort of an optimistic interpretation, because Straubhaar is hardly giving “Systemkritiker” advice. He doesn’t even notice “Systemkritiker”.
It’s a general mood. People everywhere may be chronically angry at those who rule their countries. But Germans don’t occupy Wall Street, or the Frankfurt city. They vote – and as every leftist or rightist member of parliament seems to cause the moderate democrats huge pain, they’d better take the anger seriously.
If property on the Elbchaussee or in Bremen-Schwachhausen should need big fences and alarm equipment in future, this won’t do their value any good.
P.S.: I don’t agree with “Systemkritiker”. I’m almost sure that Mr. Straubhaar goes t work by bike. But the bike needs to be locked away at his working place, because it’s too good to get stolen.
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Previously by Tai De:
» No Communists at Deutsche Welle, but… March 11, 2012
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Oskar Weggel, a German sinologist, once suggested that many Chinese people found questions about their religious affiliation similarly strange as Europeans would find questions about their blood type.1) That’s not to say that there are no committed Buddhists, Confucians, or Taoists in China.
When it comes to Wang Zhicheng (王志成), a Humanities professor at Zhejiang University, I believe that he is a Confucian – but I may be wrong. He may just be very familiar with Confucianism. While Wang apparently sees China’s role in an international philosophical dialogue (or a second axial age) based on Confucianism, and be it only for its – former – fundamental role in state control over society, his blog in general suggests that his interest goes far beyond Confucianism.
On the other hand, Kang Xiaoguang (康晓光), of Beijing’s People’s University (Renmin University), is a Confucian, or a New Confucian (新儒家). I’m not using the term Neo-Confucian here, because that would refer to a much older concept.2) Even “New Confucianism” has been around since the Republican days, according to Wikipedia – but maybe the Confucian revival struggles of these days can be seen as a stage within the same process. And while classical Confucian influence certainly went beyond statecraft (Taoist and Confucian views of what makes a good painting are different from each other, for example), Kang Xiaoguang’s interest in Confucianism stems from his search for a concept or an ideology which can rule China. (In English here, if it is an accurate source.)3)
Kang isn’t a metaphysical thinker. In fact, he is more of an economist. But he either tried, or is still trying, to think up a comprehensive state doctrine.
There seems to be a totalitarian temptation in these ways of thoughts. Hegel was pretty comprehensive believer in state power. But that was long ago, and Hegel described what he saw in an existing state, rather than drafting a state on his own.
In terms of internationally effective soft power – but that may be a concept Kang may not be too interested in, anyway4) -, his concept doesn’t look convincing either. Quite differently, Wang Zhicheng is putting his view of Confucianism – or Confucianness – in a global context.
To me, Wang’s approach looks more promising, in the light of international relations. It doesn’t belittle China’s potentially leading global ideational role. Of course, it doesn’t solve the country’s civil-society issues (which Kang describes in pretty gloomy terms) either. But Wang’s approach seems to contribute to solving both China’s domestic, and international issues.
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Notes
1) Oskar Weggel, “China”, Munich, 2002 (1981), page 202
2)
Emerging around 1100 CE, this movement was in many ways backward-looking. It sought to recover a “purer” form of Confucianism to replace the mixture of Buddhist and Taoist elements that had crept in over the centuries (mostly from “foreign” sources in India).
In contrast to Buddhists and Taoists, neo-Confucians did not believe in dual universe – the touchable word of “matter” and the spiritual world beyond. For this reason, Neo-Confucians usually rejected ideas associated with such mystical notions as reincarnation and karma.
“World History”, Fred N. Grayson and contributing authors, 2006, Hoboken, NJ, page 146.
3) I can’t warrant for the accuracy of either the Chinese, or the English source, but Kang published a book about Benevolent Government (仁政) with a huge preface, which seems to be based on the Chinese source linked in the post above. Kang had been criticized for rejecting democracy for China, in an interview with Singapore’s United Morning News (Lianhe Zaobao). The publication of the interview, in November 2004, and roughly quoted by Kang by his own memory, had carried the headline “Scholar Kang Xiaoguang: Chinese democratization is a choice that would bring calamity upon China” (学者康晓光： 中国民主化祸国殃民，唯一选择), and, in his view, a rather truncated account of what he had said. Kang found himself criticized for his points in the interview, and what he wrote and said soon after, still in 2004, about Confucianization as a political alternative, was a reaction to his critics.
4)
[..] Chinese discourse, unlike Nye’s exclusive focus on the efficacy of soft power in achieving foreign policy goals, frequently refers to a domestic context, evincing a mission for domestic purposes, although the domestic context is not the primary focus of Chinese interlocutors,
Li Minjiang wrote in an article for the Chinese Journal of International Politics, first published online on October 28, 2008.
