Advertisement
Opinion | Era of common prosperity shows China is moving forward, despite what the US thinks
- China has made enormous progress in the past four decades, but leaders know the job is far from done
- Long-term goals executed across multiple generations have led China into an era of moderate prosperity, something the US system cannot match
Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
47
In 1967, US president Richard Nixon penned an article in Foreign Affairs magazine, urging a strategy of engagement with China and stating that “our goal should be to induce change”.
Advertisement
In 2020, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asserted that US engagement “has not brought the kind of change inside of China that president Nixon had hoped to induce”. For good measure, Pompeo supported his assertion with a litany of Chinese transgressions, including the oppression of its people.
There appears to be broad political consensus in the United States that China has not changed enough and, worse still, is moving backwards with its recent slate of policies and initiatives.
China is one of the world’s oldest civilisations, and the Chinese governance system predates the US Constitution by thousands of years. Contrary to Pompeo’s observation, China’s fate is inseparable from changes, successful or otherwise, throughout its history.
Chinese leaders are students of history. President Xi Jinping addressed last month’s World Economic Forum in Davos and underlined “the need to learn from comparing long history cycles”.
China’s dynastic cycle has been playing out for more than 4,000 years. A new dynasty brings aspiration and prosperity to the people, but corruption and factionalism hollow out the dynasty and bring hardship, which eventually leads to an uprising or invasion.
Advertisement