Professor Zhang Weiwei is a highly respected Chinese intellectual and professor at Fudan University in Shanghai. He is the director of its China Institute and also runs a series of conversations with many different people around the world. Here is what came out of their meetings there and in Skopje, Macedonia in October 2024: & ◪ As you can see, also at the end of the second one, we both enjoy win-win exchanges like these about world order issues. Zhang Weiwei is known for using videos and social media to reach a large audience in China and worldwide. We suggest you see many more of Zhang Weiwei’s conversations – like recently with Professor Jeffrey Sachs – on the Thinkers’ Forum on YouTube. PS TFF posts hundreds of videos, its own and those of others, in our Video Collections on TFF Substack – including those that appear on YouTube. However, TFF...

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...

World BEYOND War,TFF Associate For years, World BEYOND War and other peace groups from around the world had been attending peace conferences in Cuba. When I visited Cuba this past January it was with a visa for that purpose. I published here the remarks I made at the conference. We shouted as loudly as we could about January’s conference in websites, social media, emails, and media interviews. The notion that there could be anything wrong with it — or that some institution could punish us for it — never entered our minds. Legally, you’re allowed to go to a peace conference in Cuba. Nobody has so much as hinted that I’ve done anything illegal. But on Thursday June 5th I got a bunch of letters in the mail telling me that on Monday June 9th the U.S. bank accounts of World BEYOND War and the private accounts of all of my family members...