BINARY BALONEY … Is the People’s Republic of China (PRC) inherently the new big evil because the former Soviet Union was the old one? … Where is the sensible middle ground and cultural overlap? … Note the RAND study of hidden bias: In social science, quality data is of course important but what is the formula machine into which it is being fed? … Capturing the fullness and essence of China in some objective way is – what does this author say? - ___________. Binary = simplistic, I believe …
FROM ‘CHINA SYNDROME’ in ‘Conversations with Lee Kuan Yew’
… LKY believed it was in the national interest of Singapore to help China rise anew because a reinvigorated China would economically raise everyone’s economy of the region … [Prof explains FOX versus HEDGEHOG metaphor in class]: The book’s author believes China’s Deng Xiaoping is a fox for sure; LKY thinks he is a hedgehog (author is unsure of the latter but not the former) … LKY regarded the 1972 Shanghai Communique, with its explicit rejection of the norm of “hegemony” for the region, as a watershed/pivotal point/high point in the evolution of Asia-US relations …. From the Hedgehog/Fox perspective, LKY viewed US President Nixon as a …….. ??? … ‘If only I had Shanghai to do….’ Deng Xiaoping said to Lee; what did he mean? … Deng’s decision to start up some coastal economic zones – what does this mean? – eventual led to China’s plunge to join the World Trade Organization (an example of China-US cooperation at its best) … [read excerpt from p. 62] … Lee describes Deng as the communist who turned against communist economics….Note the Suzhou example, how Capitalist Chinese Singapore gave Chinese Communist China credibility to investors (why this important)…LKY laughs thinking about Bill Safire, the late New York Times columnist, criticizing him for ‘helping the communists’ – what was Lee’s response to that?
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