Looking at China not Politically, But Humanistically
Can it be done?
Is it possible to look at China apolitically, as not a “communist country”, but simply as a society made up of millions of people going about their lives?
People who are sympathetic towards China often have corresponding political views which lead them to support China from a government/political standpoint. But my experiences with China were never political. It wasn’t until I realized that a lot of my country’s resistance and hatred towards China stems from our political conditioning that I started educating myself on the political aspects of Chinese society. But even now, I wouldn’t say my perspective has shifted to a politically-based one; rather I can use my understanding of the inner-workings of their system to support my argument that China is succeeding, first and foremost, in a humanistic way, regardless of what political ideology guides its government and their policy decisions. So, while reading my posts here, I think it’s important to keep in mind the greater “human” context and not assume that by praising China, I am endorsing their political system. Rather, if I do praise China at all (usually my opinions are more nuanced than pure “praise”), it’s because the outcomes of their efforts as a society over the past several decades have achieved humanistic ends that I believe the rest of the world can learn from.
The problem with looking at countries through political lenses is because political ideologies are imperfect in describing real-world situations and dynamics. Ideologies are ideal, and putting them into practice is not straightforward like following a chocolate chip cookie recipe (for some, that even may not be so straightforward).
By zooming out and looking at China as a society made up of humans, just like ourselves, we may be able to accept that they have some strengths and good points that we could potentially learn from, or at the very least, accept without feeling threatened by them.
When we see a country doing well, and see that their system is ideologically opposed to ours, does this mean we should try to dismantle their system and force them to use ours… or does it mean that we should self-reflect and adapt? To me, the answer is simple.
The goal in any spiritual practice is to achieve equanimity — to accept and adapt to our external situation without trying to change it, because we cannot force things to go our way all the time. The only thing we can change is ourselves. If we compare this with the way the US has been responding to China over the past few years, we can see that our reaction is very much non-equanimous, and that we are doing just that — trying to force something to change that is beyond our control (unless, of course you consider military intervention a reasonable form of control, which some Americans do). In going this route, we are bound to make ourselves suffer, and ultimately fail — not only at “containing China”, but also in maintaining prosperity at home, because by directing all our resources to this unproductive cause, we are neglecting the maintenance of our own systems at home.
This is why I say that understanding, and accepting China’s success in giving their people better lives is pivotal to maintaining prosperity in our own country. Not hating China is not helping China, it’s helping us. Going even further, hating China makes us look like sour grapes, which in turn bolsters the will of the Chinese people to do even better for themselves, and in extreme case, leads to toxic nationalism and anti-US sentiment in return (not something I endorse, but whose existence I completely understand). Hating China is not hurting China — it’s hurting us. Accepting the reality that China is doing well for its people and will continue to do so will allow us to adapt to a changing world and accept that, maybe there are even some things we can learn from them. In either case, the world will be a much more friendly place. Maybe I’m idealistic for wanting to see a world where East and West get along, but I’ve done it at the personal level, and I strongly believe that you can too.
