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Sal's avatar

I look forward to your articles on this. I'd just like to observe that perhaps the first order of interest is definitely the effect of this body of Chinese literature on domestic China. I assume that Chinese elites recognize the necessity of a coherent, stable world view for basic survival, especially considering how the past century or so has so shaken traditional China with external influences such as Marxism, capitalism, or even just modernity. I would assume that Chinese literature on the USA is used to inform this world view, perhaps at least helping them reach some basic conclusions about human nature (ontology), natural law, etc. given the observations of liberalism, capitalism, individualism, loneliness, etc.

The "hostility and belligerence" or security competition with the USA is, I think, more clearly understood once the above becomes a bit clearer. As an amateur, I would say that the geographical situation of China by itself makes it unable to mirror the security behaviour of the USA. The USA, is, as they say, Great Britain on steroids, a bigger and more isolated, protected island. China is surrounded by countries with significant security interests and capacity. This is a very unbalanced scale, to say the least. The Chinese approach must be seen in this regard.

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Olga Meerson's avatar

Very interesting.

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