Interesting Harvard Business Review article on “What the West Gets Wrong About China”, destroying 3 key myths about China.

Myth 1: Assuming that political change would come alongside economic development

The article makes the point that the “Chinese believe that the country’s recent economic achievements have actually come about because of, not despite, China’s […] government”.

The article quotes “July 2020 polling data from the Ash Center at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government [that] revealed 95% satisfaction with the Beijing government among Chinese citizens” and the authors confirm that their “own experiences on the ground in China confirm this” (and so does mine, by the way).

Myth 2: Believing that systems which aren’t liberal democracies can’t be legitimate

The authors point out that the Chinese not only “do believe that their form of government is legitimate and effective” but they “believe that their political system is now actually more legitimate and effective than the West’s”. They point out that “Westerners [fail] to appreciate this”.

A key reason for this legitimacy is China’s “approach to selecting future leaders” who “progress through the system by successfully running first a town and then a province; only after that do they serve on the Politburo”. To the Chinese, this “makes Chinese politics far less arbitrary or nepotistic than those of many other, notably Western, countries”.

Myth 3: The Chinese Live, Work, and Invest Like Westerners

Surprise, surprise, the authors find out that the Chinese are… Chinese! A widely different culture with a totally different context to that of the West, which means they see the world and behave differently to Westerners.

The full article here

Vir: Arnaud Bertrand, twitter