Statecraft in Modern China: From Sun Yat-sen to the New Silk Road
Many citizens in both the west and east still find themselves trapped under a set of assumptions that presumes Chinese and American cultures arise from two opposing and incompatible worlds of politics, economics and culture.
In this Rising Tide Foundation lecture which I had the pleasure of moderating, Dr. Quan Le shatters that belief by introducing the history, philosophy and political economic roots of today’s China and broader Belt and Road Initiative whose precedents can be traced back to Abraham Lincoln via China’s first president Sun Yat-sen whose program for a new nation was premised upon the best of America’s constitutional traditions and economic practice.
Dr. Le wastes no time debunking the myth of the “evil Chinese hegemon” which some among the west have come to assume is behind everything wrong with their societies by introducing concrete, provable examples of China’s many accomplishments in ending hunger, war, and poverty both for itself and its neighbors as well as it’s commitment to scientific and technological values guided by traditional Confucian ideals that have animated 2000+ years of eastern history.
Quan’s Recommended Reading list
Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China: Vogel, Ezra F
Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? by Allison, Graham
The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin : Kuhn, Robert Lawrence
Mao’s China and After: A History of the People’s Republic, Third Edition: Meisner, Maurice