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China: Patient, Subtle and Sophisticated?
By Paul Midler | March 21, 2008
In a recent blog post over at TheAtlantic.com, James Fallows described Chinese government leaders as (1) patient, (2) subtle and (3) sophisticated. TCG has a slightly different perspective, what about you? What adjectives would you use to best describe leadership in China today?
Topics: China |
March 21st, 2008 at 10:51 am
Heavy-handed?
March 21st, 2008 at 7:17 pm
At the moment, I think “nervous”
March 21st, 2008 at 7:20 pm
PR Idiots.
March 21st, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Enigmatic, greedy
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:17 am
Armed
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:30 am
You misquote Fallows. He said: “In some ways the Chinese government is patient, subtle, and sophisticated.” Big difference. I agree with Fallows, with the qualifier, “in some ways,” and I suggest everyone read the full article.
March 22nd, 2008 at 8:22 am
CLB,
I misquote no one, but if adding “in some ways” is seen as a meaningful qualifier, welcome. Later in the same post: “The government is full of subtle thinkers, but few are in the propaganda or public security ministries.” I don’t care to focus on the issue of propagandists. I’m interested in overall impressions of leadership, and in this case I suspect that patience has been confused with indecisevness. When Beijing made its move, it made its move all right. There is nothing subtle about military force.
Some believe that Beijing knows what it’s doing, that leaders are sophisticated, etc. Fallows’ suggestion is that this business in W China is a mere aberration. Others believe it is in line with expectations of leaders in a crisis situation. Tiananmen was perhaps another unsubtle moment. With a small amount of historical perspective, recent events could be seen as a recurring pattern.
The point was to discuss the overall impression of leadership in China. You pick your descriptives, for better or worse.
March 22nd, 2008 at 10:41 pm
I believe having been in bed with and beholden to the powers that be for so long, CLB would choose the word “enlightened” to describe the thugs. Hey, it’s ALL about making money, after all…
March 23rd, 2008 at 3:16 pm
It depends on your definition of sophisticated, neither more nor less. If sophisticated means absorbing Tibet with a minimum of fuss - that’s not going to happen. They could start handing out serious freebies to Tibetans so that they could benefit from the natural wealth of their ancestral lands, a la Alaska. But that would defeat the primary benefit of conquering Tibet in the first place - looting the country for everything it has. If the costs outweigh the benefits, why occupy Tibet in the first place?