The China question

Assumptions about East and West cloud thinking about Chinese politics

Considering the Chinese as essentially and forever authoritarian – as many Westerners do – denies the complexity of culture and its capacity for change, says one of the nation’s leading Sinologists.

This is one of the last “democratic posters” not yet torn down by authorities in Peking during the so-called democratic wall movement that arose across China in 1978-79. The upsurge of posters demanded demanded democracy and listed grievances against communist rule.

China, a fast-rising power on the world stage, is the focus of much western political speculation, especially as the Chinese government is dogged by accusations of human rights abuse. But Edward Friedman, a UW–Madison political scientist, believes this behemoth of a nation possesses the cultural preconditions for democracy – just as the United States has the potential for despotism.

“All cultures contain seeds of the best and the worst of which humanity is capable,” says Friedman. “They are repertoires of possibilities.”

That rich repertoire is often reduced to Johnny One Note when Westerners regard China, he says. They idealize the West as the world’s repository of democracy and demonize the East as a sinkhole of political repression.

“Considering East and West as a pair of permanent opposites in which the West is morally superior creates an obstacle to clear thinking,” says Friedman, whose consuming passion is to destroy that stereotype. Stereotype busting is the heart of his courses, such as The Challenges of Democratization, and his books, such as The Politics of Democratization: Generalizing East Asian Experiences.

“For example, the West does not have a monopoly on the elements of democracy. It never did,” Friedman says. The notion of a unified, democratic Europe and North America set against a totalitarian East is largely a product of Cold War propaganda, says Friedman, not a deep historical truth:

• Ancient democratic Athens was misogynist and enslaving as well as freedom loving.

• The English long treated Irish Catholics not as part of “the West,” but as savages beyond the pale of civilization.

• The American colonies broke with Britain because they felt they were fundamentally different from their rulers.

• Two of the three most populous democracies in the world – Japan and India – are in the East.

The West vs. East way of looking at the world is dubious intellectually as well as historically. As Friedman notes, every culture has a quiver full of possibilities and uses them in different ways, at different times, to different degrees. So to consider the Chinese as essentially and forever authoritarian is to strip away the complexity of culture – or try to – and deny its capacity for change.

“Any culture is fought over by its members,” says Friedman. “Just one question in our own culture – What is America all about? – gets very different answers.”

The here-and-now-of-it, however, is that China has been roundly criticized for its suppression of dissidents and its treatment of Tibetans. Unfortunately, the Chinese seem to see themselves as benefactors raising Tibetans out of a feudal existence, says Friedman.

That attitude is similar to the one held by European settlers of the Americas, who believed they should bring indigenous people into the fold of “civilization” – or eradicate them.

“China is a rising nation,” says Friedman. “Rising groups – the Germans, British and Americans included – have typically considered themselves superior and resented outside interference.”

Ever since the Monroe Doctrine, for instance, the United States has regarded Latin America as almost its protectorate and has taken great umbrage at outsiders’ criticism of American actions south of the border.

Friedman’s point: Looking at China or any other culture should be what he calls “an exploration of ambiguity.” It should be a painting that calls for a very large palette, instead of a study in black and white.

In the end, China’s future will be decided by the Chinese. But those who care about human rights can help in modest ways, says Friedman, who sits on the board of directors for a new publication, the Taiwan Human Rights Journal.

“A tyrant often tells his victims, ‘You’re all alone, no one cares about you.’ By maintaining a human rights dialogue with the Chinese, both rulers and ruled, we tell the victims that they are not alone.”