David Gosset: The Great Invisible Wall in China
David Gosset is director of the Euro-China Center for International and Business Relations at CEIBS, Shanghai, and founder of the Euro-China Forum. He writes in the Asia Times Online:
Most of the media reports will not present a thorough and balanced analysis of the situation in China’s Xinjiang region, a vast area where stability and development are not only strategic for the People’s Republic of China but are also key elements of Central Asia’s fragile equilibrium.
Therefore, 16 months after the violence in Tibet, Urumqi’s tragic clashes will affect China’s image in the West. On the backdrop of a global financial and economic crisis, the understanding gap between Beijing and the West is widening. It is urgent to reverse this trend.
On the road toward comprehension and cooperation stands a serious obstacle; an invisible wall of mistrust, ignorance and fear is separating the West and China. Without any objective physical location, less spectacular than the Iron Curtain or the Berlin Wall and more difficult to define, it is an intangible construct of the individual and collective psyche which has to be torn down.
For a long period of time, China’s Great Wall has been the symbol of an isolated and declining empire with its elites incapable of adjusting to change. Today, the Great Invisible Wall could refer to the West’s inability to fully appreciate the extent of China’s transformation and how it is redistributing world power in the 21st century. For the analyst, the discrepancy between the paucity of Western responsiveness to the new historical conditions and the magnitude of the shift induced by China’s return to centrality, is a source of perplexity.
POSTED COMMENTS: 3 Responses
It’s not “the West’s inability to fully appreciate the extent of China’s transformation” that is causing Westerner’s to distrust of China, it is our better understanding of how things really work in China. Twenty years ago we were naive and hopeful, now we see the corrupt mess that is the CCP and consequently China’s government. The improvements in China over the last generation are entirely due to the Chinese people. The problems that still exist in China, to the extent they are man made, are entirely due to the CCP and China’s government. Mr. Gosset seems to share the aristocratic pretensions of China’s “communist” elite. True empathy with the Chinese people demands vast improvements and changes to the current situation.
When China hides itself, no wonder foreigners do not appreciate what is happening. Open up the information doors and let the light come in – and out.
“When China hides itself, no wonder foreigners do not appreciate what is happening. Open up the information doors and let the light come in – and out”
Exactly – the CCP shoots itself in the foot with some of its policies.
“Today, the Great Invisible Wall could refer to the West’s inability to fully appreciate the extent of China’s transformation…”
I disagree: I was much more convinced of China’s transformation before I went and lived there for a bit. The west and china both need to gain a great deal of understanding to make their relationship work properly