It is the West that has peaked, not China

Launched on November 17, 2024Updated with new materials regularly TFF Board members Thore Vest. Everywhere, the delegation was met with a sincere wish to develop knowledge, dialogue, cooperative projects, and initiatives based on citizens’ diplomacy – in general, but with the West in particular. For more, see “Report from the Nordic delegation to China’s Xinjiang Province, September 7-15, 2024.” While the delegation was in Xinjiang, various ideas were already being discussed from the local to the top level, i.e., with the governor and party leaders of Xinjiang. The two TFF Associates suggested that TFF set up a special section – in addition to its “China and Silk” – where various quality materials about Xinjiang would regularly be published to promote public education about Xinjiang, particularly its contemporary development – worldwide but in the West in particular. This is now a reality – as can be seen below – but it...

Photo Jan Oberg China has recently garnered significant attention due to its advancements in various technological fields, such as quantum physics and artificial intelligence. In media discussions and my lectures on China, it is common to encounter objections asserting that the West, particularly the United States, is certainly ahead of China. These assertions appear to be more emotional than factual. However, a more fundamental consideration is whether this question holds any significance. Cultural Perspective One aspect that Westerners often overlook is the cultural variation in understanding the relationship between abstract academic insights and practical applications of those insights. To comprehend the origin and significance of discussions on technological superiority, it is essential to acknowledge cultural and social differences between China and the West. I have explored this topic before in some of my previous articles published on the TFF website. Particularism On the cultural dimension universalist – particularist, China exhibits...

Foreword The Board of The Transnational Foundation in Sweden has decided to publish an easy-to-read, scholarly anthology that addresses one of the most important – and potentially dangerous – issues of our time: Why are the political, economic, and medialised Western images of China so consistently negative – and what can you do to understand China better? These images may be expressions of a political will to present only various shades of grey and black with the aim of building a consciousness about China as an enemy and not a partner. They may also be seen as a sort of world-dominating ethos of ignorance based upon the assumption that “we’ve-got-nothing-to-learn-from-others,’ we are the teacher. Another possibility is that the West, deep down, feels that it is getting relatively weaker from a macro-historical perspective and comforts itself with denial and accusations against “the other” of being the reason for its manifest...