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The westernization of China still looks pretty inevitable to me. What's changed?
by garply 16y ago
The westernization of China still looks pretty inevitable to me. What's changed?
- DuncanIdaho 16y agoHeh... that has been said many times in history. You can't whatevernize China. China is just waking up from a 100 or so years of slumber (or catharsis) into its rightful place in the world.
- loewenskind 16y agoBecoming first world seems inevitable, but westernized? Not necessarily.
- gamble 16y agoThe adoption of capitalism and participation in international institutions doesn't imply that China has westernized. By 'westernize', most people mean that they expect China to adopt democratic, individualistic consumer culture and a political system similar to Continental or Anglo-Saxon democracies. I believe this is extremely unlikely. Radically 'unwestern' states have always coexisted with industrialized capitalism: Tsarist Russia, 2nd Reich and Nazi Germany, etc. Not to mention that most Asian democracies like Japan would hardly be recogzable to a Briton or American. The best-case scenario for an emergent China is probably a state that looks a lot like Singapore, Taiwan, or Japan. IMO, China fifty years from now will probably fall far more toward the authoritarian end of the spectrum.