Chinese Obamaphilia? Today, No. Tomorrow, Perhaps.
The Chinese are supreme pragmatists. They view the outside world as inherently dangerous, and revere stability and order as both tantamount to happiness and a prerequisite to progress. In a society without a fully developed legal system, anti-toxicity, in paint and milk, was never taken for granted, even before the melamine debacle. Insurance has always been sold as a disaster defense, never an investment. Savings rates are sky high, and threaten to become higher still due to the global economic crisis, one that has sent panic down the spine of China's newly-minted middle class. But denizens of the Middle Kingdom are also romantics. Driven by both trenchant Confucian ambition as well as Daoist and Buddhist release, Chinese dream of a tomorrow that is not only better than today but resplendently so, dripping with gold. Apartment complexes boast monikers such as "Magnificent Horizon," "Gathering of all Heroes under Heaven," and "Rich Gate." Even government propaganda uses over-the-top turns of phrase, discouraging spitting by promoting "eight shames and eight glories." The back seats of cars have enough leg room to make an executive feel like an emperor.
Polarized Impulses
Given China's tendency to swing between self-protection and fantasy, the country's ambivalence regarding the United States makes sense. On one hand, America, still exotic and not really understood on a deep cultural level, remains unpredictable, a powerful gorilla, lurching, striding, across the global stage in an intoxicated haze of absolutism, ready to advance its own interests. On the other, even during the darkest moments of the Cultural Revolution and Bush's tone-deaf unilateral Iraq misadventure, America never forfeited the allure of a country where anyone, irrespective of race, can realize epic grandeur. True, admiration of U.S has, in recent years, been murmured sotto voce. Political correctness mandates that American hegemony has become a danger to world order, even though MIT continues to attract China's best and brightest engineers. But American Idol, with its cuckoo contestants uninhibitedly confident in their ability to make the big time, remains a projective vehicle of Chinese aspirations. America, gilded fantasyland, never completely faded.
The Meaning of Obama
Within this context - an ambivalent China that fears our power yet reveres our optimism - we can assess reaction to President-Elect Obama's electoral victory. It has been muted but, under the surface, a tentative hope, even a romantic charge, crackles.
When asked about America's election, most mainland Chinese say they don't much care, as long the new president does nothing to block China's rise or disrupt global stability. There were no whoops of delight. We should not forget that most Chinese do not think President Bush has been detrimental to China's interests. Trade barriers have fallen. Taiwan independence was not supported. The rise of the renminbi has been orderly and, the current financial crisis notwithstanding, China has grown wealthier, more respected as a geo-political force to be reckoned with. After his administration's initial anti-China bellicosity and the awkwardness of the 2001 Hainan spy plane incident, relations between America and China quickly regained a pragmatic footing, greatly facilitated by our mono-maniacal focus on the War on Terror. So, in the most practical and relevant place - the Chinese wallet - an Obama presidency is not a cause for celebration. He remains mysterious and triggers an undercurrent of anxiety, particularly given the anti-free trade rumblings coming from Democrats.
Reverence for Winners
For all that, the Chinese are impressed, both with Obama and the country that elected him. Chinese respect his understated intelligence. His glide. His cool. But they positively revere winners. And Obama won big time, defeating established political orders, Democrat and Republican, as an archetypal outsider. The Middle Kingdom is a country replete with Han-style Horatio Alger tales of scholar-nobles nee peasants. Social mobility, the unheralded dynamic strand of Confucian social structure, remains a powerful motivator. Obama, a man of humble beginnings, personifies the potential of Everyman, born of modest means, to achieve not just success but Magnificence. He is an embodiment, albeit an alien one, of hard-earned, super-sized individual glory.
On a national level, the Chinese, matchless ethnocentrics, are struggling to cast off a 150-year inferiority complex sowed in the ruins of the Opium War and cultivated by disoriented Qing dynasty emperors and foreign opportunists. (This is true despite the Olympics games, heralded by everyone here as a triumph.) Obama represents a different model of success, a non-colonial one, and therefore has the potential to evolve into Michael Jordan-esque icon, transcending cultural barriers by tapping into nationalistic aspirations. The symbolism inherent in his election can be a potent font of mass affinity but not until aforementioned anxieties are calmed.
A Pro-American Awakening?
Has the Obama-mania that has swept much of the globe impacted China's view of America. Yes, but very tentatively and, today, only beneath the surface. The image of an efficiently benevolent America was shattered when we bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999. However, Obama's election may yet redeem us, despite the blame currently being heaped upon us here for the world's financial distress. American-style individualism has always had great appeal to the Chinese masses. It's like Eve's apple, a succulent, entrancing - but forbidden - fruit. From Nike and Apple to Coke and Starbucks, U.S. brands have been built by appealing to the dragon in every Chinese heart. While overt rebellion is not sanctioned in a social structure as regimented as China's, the ability to morph from nothing into a star, lauded by society, has always been the Ground Zero of American appeal. Our idealism, easily liberated via a structured system with checks and balances, impresses ordinary Chinese who view their central government as "fair" but provincial organs as poisoned, inherently corrupt. (This is true amongst Communist apparatchiks and entrepreneurs alike.)
As one participant in the 1989 Tiananmen protests whispered to me, "I loved America. When I was in college, I believed in America. As an adult, I awoke from my dream. But maybe it wasn't a dream after all." He then continued, "Obama's election could never happen in a country with a history as long as China's." By shining a mirror on their society's limitations, maybe America can, yet again, be a beacon of hope even in the prideful, nationalistic, economically resurgent Middle Kingdom. We can, yet again, be admired as a well-oiled engine of dreams.
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China was the Republicans' best partner in crushing American workers' aspirations for a slightly larger piece of the economic pie.
MY RECIPE for reining in China is quite simple: WHAT IF ....
(1) we replaced the EMPLOYER portion of social security taxes with a Federal "invoice tax" collected by the Federal government . . . a sales tax that would be revenue-neutral, that is, not a net tax hike . . .
THE RESULT SHOULD BE: higher prices for imports, but not for domestic products
Additional benefits:
(A) Lower taxes on businesses that actually employ people, but higher taxes on business that sell stuff without employing anyone
(B) Lower taxes on nonprofit organizations and entities that don't sell stuff (churches, museums)
There are several other benefits -- there will be endless discussion as to details, for example, do we apply the tax to services (lawyer fees, insurance, etc.) and have a lower over all tax rate, or do we just use it for manufactured goods . . .
FASCINATING -- Just think of the ramifications . . . I think they are mostly very good . . .
What is it about Americans that makes them believe in low taxes like in the father, the son and the holy ghost?
In reality the nations with the higher taxes (including social security, health and retirement benefits) have the highest standards of living and the highest productivity. That's not an accident but a consequence of government that actually does what it is supposed to: serve the people.
The Chinese are hoping Obama is as treasonous as Bush and helps them dominate the world via slave labor industrialization.
The Communist Chinese have been supported by the GOP for decades and they're destruction of America is almost complete with willful help from Bush, Reagan, Nixon. They've been counting on traitors.
Why do Republicans hate America so much?
I think just the opposite. An economically strong China, means a strong global economy, which means economic growth for the US. Cutting the US economy off from the rest of the world would be a disaster of epoch proportions. There are well over one billion consumers and China and American companies and workers have made big investments there in the past decade and will reap huge rewards going forward, unless it gets cut off by protectionist walls or military conflict.
"An economically strong China" can only exist in the context of "an economically strong United States." Whatever is based on "that great big sucking sound" is just an empty illusion, and I daresay the Chinese never believed otherwise (and still don't).
Remember, the United States of America has not existed for even a mere three hundred years yet. China has existed for many thousands. It's much too early to tell whether the USA will even make it to its three hundredth birthday...
You mean like the protectionist walls that China uses to protect its own domestic goods??? WE, as in the US of A, became the greatest economic engine because we protected our workers and the economy. Guess what? The rich still got rich and the middle class spent and saved.
Now, if you said something along the line of the Us helping China set up the means to help them serve their own billion plus population (i.e. not at the cost of our own) I would agree, but sacrificing our own to promote some visionary belief that all of this is good for America is wrong. There are ways to promote fair trade and prosperity without sacrificing entire economies.
It's a waste of time to debate with supply sider/free traders/capitalism at any cost "Americans" like Dugan..
The only investment American workers have made in China is giving them our jobs through no choice of our own.
"The Chinese are supreme pragmatists. They view the outside world as inherently dangerous, and revere stability and order as both tantamount to happiness and a prerequisite to progress. "
They? The Chinese? Hey Doctoroff-- understand you make your way in the world through advertising, but please less generalities and more specifics? Why all the generalities? How about some specifics. Too much work to do that?
Now a post about how mid level, or senior, hacks amongst the Chinese Communist Party view Obama would be useful. But when Americans who have made their fortune spinning China to corporate hacks iin the US what to tell us what "they" or "the Chinese" think-- I beg to differ.
Such generalities are above your pay grade.
I sure hope Obama is getting a few more details than this stuff you are dishing.
Lets see how many over used trite, 'tell me nothing" generalities can we use?
"appealing to the dragon in every Chinese heart"
"an ambivalent China that fears our power yet reveres our optimism"
"overt rebellion is not sanctioned in a social structure as regimented as China's"
Gag me with a spoon, so to speak. Or, maybe "Boffo Batman!"
Seriously Doctoroff-- more meat. Fewer ill chosen adjectives.
The man has captured more about Chinese culture in five words than you will ever understand.
Never mind. Why do I even try?
:-)
Tom,
... great, worthwhile article.
The people of China have embraced market reforms in their drive to eradicate poverty. Taking confrontational positions only tests pride and stimulates the spread of nationalism and egocentric reactions. That never ends well. The positive trend that has flourished, particularly in the past decade, signals continued interaction, education, and debate enhanced through powerful new tools as the internet.
Lack of moderation has brought us to the current economic mess we are all in. Moderation should absolutely prevail on both sides of the free trade argument, and on the implementation of any corrective measures for us to weather the next few years.
Hopefully Obama will not implement, or act on, some of his campaign "trade" promises.
http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/
I'm hoping he will. I want goods from China to be as safe for our children and pets as goods from the US and I want them labeled so I have a choice. I want the FDA beefed up so that they can inspect and test imports or I want those imports stopped.
I also fully support tax incentives to keep jobs in the US. Trade is one thing, but exporting jobs and importing toxic food and drugs is not good for America. In fact, I would like to see tariffs on imported goods that bring up the prices to compare with US goods. The tarriffs can go toward reducing the debt so we don't have to borrow so much from the Chinese.
Of course China is not excited about Obama. He might actually protect American interests over Chinese interests.
Tariffs on imported goods results in higher prices for American consumers. It also results in retalliatory tariffs and a general reduction in trade which would hurt our transportation and export sectors tremendously. It would be a complete disaster.
If you want safe goods sold in the US, ask president Bush to give you an EPA with teeth. Or just wait for the Obama administration to undo eight years of misguided policies.
Most of what comes from China is perfectly safe, by the way. The problem is that we don't have a government agency that would tell us which goods are not.
Now that's a far better analysis of China than most. I think we need to cut the first sentence
"The Chinese are supreme pragmatists. "
out and hang it over our beds. It contains the promise and the threat from China in one. It also contains the recipe for successful political and economic relations. Chinese respond positively to everything that helps them and will reject any attempt to put them at a disadvantage. Which means that they can be convinced to do the right thing... if at the end of the day there is an upside for China. And that is far more than what we are used to from our own ideologues who will rather leave burnt earth behind than move from their pre-determined position by as much as a hair's width.
Maybe there's some left over missle technology that Obama can sell the Chinese.......
Nope, Cheney took care of that already.
Between Nixon, Bush, Reagan - they've single-handedly assured the Communist Chinese Empire has taken over global trade, secured their claim to the worlds energy supplies and cleaned us out of military secrets.
...and they've sure made Rupert Murdoch rich for his treasonous propaganda that Republcan supporters faithfully cling to like a Bible stuffed with kiddie porn and covered in Old Milwaukee.
Yeah, - Republican voters should be very proud...
..Now pull my finger!
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