The Global Times, the Communist Party’s official “global newspaper,” hosted a seminar on “Public Opinion in China and the Changing World.” On its website, it posted a slide show listing all the participants, mostly scholars, as well as abstracts on their point of view.
This is a fascinating peak into how Chinese opinion leaders look at the world and their own country’s role in it. Most of what we see and hear from our own media about China is very simplistic and presents something of a caricature of China. Under that caricature, we would expect a party-sponsored event like this to be a series of predictable, boring speeches following closely along an approved party line. That is not what you get at all. These are thoughtful people with pretty sophisticated views on both the challenges and opportunities their country faces. Of course, you also get a fair amount of nationalistic breast-beating. Still, it appeared to be a very open and honest assessment, but within the bounds of a certain orthodoxy.
The Global Times slide show is actually a pretty accessible account of the event and, for anybody interested in China, it is worth taking the time to review in its entirety.
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