Liberty vs optimism: an East-West tussle over China’s future
At the SCMP’s annual China Conference, American journalist Keith Richburg makes the case for more openness while Chinese venture capitalist Eric Li says the outlook is better than fine
A clash of civilisations played out on a conference stage in Hong Kong as an academic extolling individual freedom and a venture capitalist citing data on Chinese optimism traded barbs.
“As China grows and develops and rises to become a world power, commensurate with that they have to start giving a little bit more openness to their own people,” said Keith Richburg, an American journalist, author and academic.
“They have to start letting people read a little bit more what they want. They have to start letting people be what they want and move around the way they want. There’s a reason why you get so much innovation coming out of the US and why so many people go to Silicon Valley.”
But Eric Li, managing partner of Shanghai-based Chengwei Capital and founder of news and commentary network Guancha.cn, said the data showed otherwise.
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As China grows and develops and rises to become a world power ... they have to start giving a little bit more openness to their own people
“You can’t find one credible public survey that says the Chinese are not happy or optimistic about the future. They’re the most optimistic people on Earth,” Li said.
The two panellists provided the liveliest exchange – and most pointedly divergent viewpoints – on a panel called “discussing commonalities between Chinese and Western cultures and values”, part of the South China Morning Post’s annual China Conference on Thursday.
The conference ranged over the relative strength of China and the United States, as well as the importance of the two countries reconciling their differences.
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