Evolution of Chinese intellectuals' thought over two decades

• Source: The Global Times
• [23:54 May 31 2009]
• Comments

China rises

Increasing globalization and China's enhanced international status also altered international studies.

Nuclear proliferation was a focus of Sino-US issues in the 1990s, according to Shen Dingli, an international relations expert.

“In the 1990s, China had few opportunities to express what it thought and wanted, but was pressed to follow the US,” Shen said. But in the 21st century, the pattern has been changing.

Nuclear proliferation is no longer a centric problem between China and the US. On the contrary, the two countries are seeking strategic cooperation, according to Shen.

“After entering the 21st century, China experienced drastic changes every year,” said Zhang Liping. When she visited the US as a visiting scholar at the end of 1990s, she was surprised at numerous vehicles parked along the streets, varieties of fruits and advanced technology.

But when she came back to China two years later, she was amazed at China’s rapid changes. She found China had almost everything in daily life that the US has.

“In the past, Chinese wanted to know more about the US, but now Americans wanted to know more about China,” said Zhang Liping. When she visited the US again in 2005, she found many seminars discussing China’s rise almost simultaneously.

It was once hard for Zhang to make an appointment with American analysts working at think tanks in the 1990s, but today she can “easily meet the same well-known analysts by merely sending them an e-mail beforehand”.

Two issues lag behind economic development, said Zhang Liping: political reform and environmental protection.

Shen Dingli worries that China’s growing wealth gap and severe corruption might impair people’s confidence in the government and the ruling party.

“Intellectuals should not blindly cater to a specific group, no matter majority or minority, but view society in a rational way and help China find a road that fits with the actual situation,” Zhang Yiwu said.

The influence of China’s intellectuals can be seen in exemptions from agricultural tax, investment in village health care, education and infrastructure systems, education reform and social security system reform, said Wang Hui, an intellectual historian and Tsinghua University professor at an academic forum in Geneva.

“People are more mature now,” said Zhang Yiwu. “They no longer think Western thoughts are China’s ultimate goal.”

Several times during her interview, Zhang Liping emphasized that “radical reform or revolution is extremely insecure and does not work in China.”