Book review: The Great Equal Society, by Kim Young-oak and Kim Jung-kyu
This well-written book explains how China could become a model for the world - setting the example the US has failed to provide - based on its ancient philosophy: Confucianism.
by Kim Young-oak & Kim Jung-kyu
World Scientific Pub
4 stars
This well-written book explains how China could become a model for the world - setting the example the US has failed to provide - based on its ancient philosophy: Confucianism.
Co-author Kim Young-oak is professor of Korean studies at Hanshin University and a leading intellectual in South Korea. Kim Jung-kyu is director of ACA Investments, a private equity firm headquartered in Singapore and a former student of the professor.
"We hope that China seizes the Confucian vision and realises a society which can serve as an inspiration for the rest of the world," they write. "If China becomes just another America … with its materialist values, military expansionism and environmental degradation, then the world will have no reason to welcome its emergence. If China becomes a model civilisation … achieving a healthy and prosperous society [while] projecting a magnanimous and intelligent leadership globally - in a way that America is currently failing to do - then the world will surely laud and embrace its rise."
The authors set out how the mainland can achieve this in government, economy, education, diplomacy and the environment.
The key is a change in the way people think and behave, they write. A good example is industry: "Management-labour relations in China are among the most hostile in the world." Chinese companies should follow the example of firms in Japan which consider employees their most important stakeholders, above customers and shareholders: their CEOS are careful not to pay themselves too much, unlike those in the US and China.
