Thursday, August 9, 2012
＂馮式和諧復興理論＂的創立與發展史 FUNG'S HARMONY RENAISSANCE THEORY AND DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
＂馮式和諧復興理論＂的創立與發展史, FUNG'S HARMOINY RENAISSANCE THEORY AND DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
•＂馮式和諧復興理論＂的創建。经过了欧洲文芝复兴後地球还是充满人种，国家，政治等多种歧视。最终唯有和谐复兴能完全解放人思想.把人的仓建精神升华致高无限
• 世界必須了解的中國和諧復興。中国古代的和谐科学文化
• 基於美中兩國和諧互補基礎上的世界和諧復興
• 自然和諧規律的發現令人類回歸和諧提供了藉助工程理論指導的科技創新途徑
•Harmony propagates as energy wave and thus can cause resonance in unison, nature’s preferred way of propagation. It is an essential force of nature incorporates communication, energy and matter the three fundamental elements of the universe. It can be practiced as a true faith as prescribed by Laotze’s Dao DE Jin. Dao creates the universe at the beginning. Without harmony, the dynamic balance force, the universe will self destruct. Please Google my related articles on harmony Faith and twelve virtues of harmony renaissance.
HARMONY RENAISSANCE PREAMBLE
In the East harmony as a social science theory was evolved from natural science observation by Lao Zi. Human in harmony with the universe is called Tian Ren He Yi.
Einstein was also quoted as saying the order of nature is not accidental. Harmony is the order of nature. Harmony belongs to the World and to the Universe.
HARMONY RENAISSANCE DECLARATION
Harmony is the highest common value. Renaissance is action. Together they have life. Harmony is the order of natural science and the fundamental law of the universe. Harmony is dynamic energy balance and is also the principle of universe creation. From the very beginning, the Universe is created by the infinite invisible energy in the firmament. The invisible energy that created the universe can also be called DAO.
Lao Zi said "Dao created one, one created two, two created three, three created all things. All things carry Ying and embrace Yang. Dynamic balance creates harmony." Lao Zi's harmony theory of universe is in unison with modern quantum physics. Harmony renaissance is the guiding principle to be applied to natural and social sciences. It is the break through that will take us to the next level of human creativity and accomplishment beyond European Renaissance.
世界和谐复兴序言
作为社会科学理论，东方和谐源于老子对自然科学的观察。
人类与自然和谐，为天人合一。
爱因斯坦说过，自然有其规律，而非偶然。和谐是自然的规律。
和谐属于世界，属于自然。
世界和谐复兴宣言
和谐是人类最高的共同价值，复兴是行动。和谐复兴，赋予新生命。
和谐是自然科学的规律，是宇宙的基本定律。
和谐是动态能量的平衡，是创造自然的法则。
混沌于始，广袤无边的无形能量创造了宇宙。
这种创造宇宙的无形能量，为道。
老子曰：“道生一、一生二、二生三、三生万物。
万物负阴而抱阳，冲气以为和。”老子的自然和谐理论与现代的量子力学异曲同工。
和谐复兴是自然科学和社会科学的指导纲领。必将突破现状，使人类的创造力提高到一个新的水平，超越欧洲文艺复兴的成就。
Francis C W Fung, Ph.D.
Director General
World Harmony Organization
Thursday, June 9, 2011
CHINA RISE MEANS “HUG THE WORLD WITH RESPECT”
CHINA RISE MEANS “HUG THE WORLD WITH RESPECT”
By Francis C W Fung, Ph.D.
The present paper is a definitive answer to Rob Gifford’s address “China’s Rise: A quest to ‘Hug the World’? featured by NPR (U.S. National Public Radio). The address presented the viewpoints of both Panda huggers and Panda doubters without conclusion. As a Westerner, Mr. Gifford is not to be blamed for drawing on limited knowledge of Chinese history and civilization for his address. Would the address have been be delivered by Kissinger, formerly U.S. secretary of State (author of the best seller book “ON China”), who understands China as a civilization state, the conclusion would have likely be an affirmative answer to the question posed. The present author is a bicultural scientist currently working on Solar Stirling engine for electric power generation, born in China but received all his higher education from America since the tender age of 16. He also grows up in America in a bicultural family, having married to an American wife with German ancestry. I learned my Western history from my broad minded wife, who teaches world history as her life time interest. I am heavily influenced by her in my world view from an unbiased scholarly view that relies heavily on history and cultural development.
There are many reasons to justify accepting China as a peaceful nation and as defined by Kissinger, a civilization state with 5000 years of uninterrupted history. This is an opinion widely held by many well informed world historians. This is also a claim that China often uses to remind the Western nations. However, Panda doubters often argue that the past does not guarantee future ambition will be the same. This is where a deeper understanding of Chinese culture and national spirit will yield a more accurate perspective. The present author will now endeavor to make the logical conclusion to the question posed by Mr. Gifford by summing up relevant current and future development factors that will guide China to “hug the world with respect”. The qualifying world, respect, is very pertinent here. Hugging without respect is routinely practiced. When the hugger is unwilling to treat the hugged as equal and using a very condescending manner. This type of hugging is done by one side who perceive the other as inferior without tolerance and acceptance of differences in culture or belief.
According to Western thinking based on the rise of Germany in Europe before Second World War, there will be confrontation between China, a rising power, and the reigning hegemony power, America. Panda doubters argue, this conflict of ideology, interests and religion would inevitably lead to the next major world war. This type of thinking may apply to 19th Century Europe but has no relevance to China and her path of development today. The genius of Deng Xioping, the late reform and opening up leader of China, lies in his correctly predicting that the world trend is mutual development and not war. Results of the wars launched by America during the last five decades have badly sapped American economy and soft power. During the same period, the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) all have benefitted through commerce and mutual development. Through China’s effort alone 500 million people have been saved from stark poverty and achieved a reasonable living in the short time of thirty years. This achievement is unprecedented in human history. 80% of the people of the world have risen from stark poverty due to China’s recent achievements. There is no reason for China to abandon Deng’s teaching while she is ahead.
According to Kissinger in his book “On China”, China is very different from the West culturally, philosophically and religiously. Christianity is an aggressive religion which believes the doctrine of crusades and spreading the gospel to save the heathens. United States also believes in the “manifest destiny” to preach and teach our so called universal values to the under developed countries. The European 19th Century spread of European colonialism often hides behind the spread of Christianity. China does not have a national religion of her own to save the world; it accepts all major religions. Because the fact that China as a whole does not practice Christianity Western countries deeply distrusts her. It went as far as preventing Chinese Americans being fully accepted as full equals into the American melting pot compared to many other Christian minorities of any color. I know, because I lived as a Chinese American minority in the U.S. for over 50 years.
Instead of religion, the two major pillars of teaching that China believes are Confucianism and Daoism. The corner stone of both philosophies are the teaching of Harmony. Harmony with mankind, harmony within family, within oneself, among nations, harmony between the government and the citizens and with nature. In short, China has no built in religious reason to expand. In fact Confucius teaches that “Gentlemen prefer harmony to conformity. Little people prefer conformity to Harmony”. In another word, Chinese philosophy accepts a multipolar world, whereas Western world rallies behind Christianity as the only true religion. Most important America presidential speeches are dutifully always end with “God bless America”. Americans are very proud of the fact that our money is printed with “In God we trust” to remind us that we believe in the only true God. The implication is heathens like the Chinese cannot be trusted. This is the major reason that China and Chinese Americans are not trusted by Americans.
America is very reluctant to hug China; even China has come a long way as student in learning America technology, management and values. That Chinese are good students is a well-accepted fact. Confucius taught the importance of learning. Chinese civil system was based on meritorious promotion almost 2000 years ago and it remains so in the present government. Among other reasons, this willingness to learn is most important for China’s fast progress today. Most Chinese accept the Confucius adage “When there are three people together one must be my teacher”. There is no equivalent practice in Western society. The opposite belief is more like “When there are three people together, I must be the teacher”. There are many reasons America cannot and will not hug China with respect despite China’s enormous improvement during the last thirty years. All the China bashing is due in no small account to American politicians’, scholars’ and media’s distrust of China. According to my American wife, the history teacher, the disrespect of Chinas very deeply founded due to the facts that 1) China is not a Christian Country, 2) Racially Chinese are not Caucasians and thus are inferior to all Caucasians, including whites, Indians and Latin Americans, 3) Today China does not practice communism but the legacy of the cold war of the last Century of cold war has left a deep distrust of China in the hearts of America that still remain today. 4) Culturally and philosophically China is very different from the West.
In “On China” Kissinger boldly tries to contrast American and Chinese thinking by using common practices in the two different societies. I agree that his examples are well conceived. First in warfare America always believe in overwhelming fire power. America won in Korean War dog fights because of the F16s have bigger guns than the Mig 15s. However, we are a long way from the Korean War. America still spends more on military power than the rest of the world put together.
However in today’s mutual development world to win friends by soft power is just as effective as fire power if not more. Today China is winning friends by investment, trade and helping to build infrastructures in developing countries (see “Charm Offensive: How China’s Soft Power is Transforming the World”, by Joshua Kurlantzick and “The Beijing Consensus” by Stefan Halper). And In her search for friends , China is not promoting ideology or religion. She also practices noninterference in the recipient countries internal domestic policies. According to many authors Beijing Consensus trumps over Washington Consensus in wining more friends. Instead of practicing confrontation, Chinese practices holistic approaches in international relations. This is the common Chinese approach to problem solving. This type of strategic thinking is taught by even Suntze the master who wrote “the Art of War”. Suntze taught the Chinese to balance all strategic factors before launching a war and the best way to win is without launching a war. War is the last resort after exhausting all options. In a war, as recent history shows both sides loose.
The Western approach to War is more akin to playing Chess than the playing Chinese Weiqi (known in the West as the Go game, introduced by Japan to the West). Chess is a game of confrontation and capture, in capturing the King to win often both sides are trading pieces until one side or both is devastated. Weiqi is a different strategic game. The players objective is not capture but to surround the enemy by using the least pieces. The winner wins by more spaces occupied. Quite often the game is decided by only a few spaces won. All pieces are equal; there is no power structure that distinguishes each piece. The game is played with more steps thinking ahead than chess. It is simple in move but very complicated in strategy than chess. Today a well programed computer can usually beat the best human chess player but the same cannot be said about weiqi. Please read present author’s article “Learn to play weiqi, the harmony game, for fun” Published by San Francisco State University, Confucius Institute website.
In China’s rise more of the world will be brought together by Beijing Consensus. Commerce and trade will bring the world together in Harmony instead of War, cold or hot. China is embracing Harmony Renaissance as governance philosophy (“Chinese Harmony Renaissance, What the World Must Know”, by the present author). She is willing and eager to hug America with respect, but the U.S. is not quite ready to return the hug. China is already hugging all the nations she has relation with. Because in China there is Harmony Renaissance and China believes that she must develop together with the world. China believes that a multipolar world is inevitable. The only way America will hug China in return is not for China to be more like America but for America to recognize China’s progress and accept China as an equal not an inscrutable people and culture as the old Western world saw China. China’s Harmony Renaissance means China accepts a multipolar world and willing to continue to learn and make changes for a mutual development world.
By Francis C W Fung, Ph.D.
The present paper is a definitive answer to Rob Gifford’s address “China’s Rise: A quest to ‘Hug the World’? featured by NPR (U.S. National Public Radio). The address presented the viewpoints of both Panda huggers and Panda doubters without conclusion. As a Westerner, Mr. Gifford is not to be blamed for drawing on limited knowledge of Chinese history and civilization for his address. Would the address have been be delivered by Kissinger, formerly U.S. secretary of State (author of the best seller book “ON China”), who understands China as a civilization state, the conclusion would have likely be an affirmative answer to the question posed. The present author is a bicultural scientist currently working on Solar Stirling engine for electric power generation, born in China but received all his higher education from America since the tender age of 16. He also grows up in America in a bicultural family, having married to an American wife with German ancestry. I learned my Western history from my broad minded wife, who teaches world history as her life time interest. I am heavily influenced by her in my world view from an unbiased scholarly view that relies heavily on history and cultural development.
There are many reasons to justify accepting China as a peaceful nation and as defined by Kissinger, a civilization state with 5000 years of uninterrupted history. This is an opinion widely held by many well informed world historians. This is also a claim that China often uses to remind the Western nations. However, Panda doubters often argue that the past does not guarantee future ambition will be the same. This is where a deeper understanding of Chinese culture and national spirit will yield a more accurate perspective. The present author will now endeavor to make the logical conclusion to the question posed by Mr. Gifford by summing up relevant current and future development factors that will guide China to “hug the world with respect”. The qualifying world, respect, is very pertinent here. Hugging without respect is routinely practiced. When the hugger is unwilling to treat the hugged as equal and using a very condescending manner. This type of hugging is done by one side who perceive the other as inferior without tolerance and acceptance of differences in culture or belief.
According to Western thinking based on the rise of Germany in Europe before Second World War, there will be confrontation between China, a rising power, and the reigning hegemony power, America. Panda doubters argue, this conflict of ideology, interests and religion would inevitably lead to the next major world war. This type of thinking may apply to 19th Century Europe but has no relevance to China and her path of development today. The genius of Deng Xioping, the late reform and opening up leader of China, lies in his correctly predicting that the world trend is mutual development and not war. Results of the wars launched by America during the last five decades have badly sapped American economy and soft power. During the same period, the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) all have benefitted through commerce and mutual development. Through China’s effort alone 500 million people have been saved from stark poverty and achieved a reasonable living in the short time of thirty years. This achievement is unprecedented in human history. 80% of the people of the world have risen from stark poverty due to China’s recent achievements. There is no reason for China to abandon Deng’s teaching while she is ahead.
According to Kissinger in his book “On China”, China is very different from the West culturally, philosophically and religiously. Christianity is an aggressive religion which believes the doctrine of crusades and spreading the gospel to save the heathens. United States also believes in the “manifest destiny” to preach and teach our so called universal values to the under developed countries. The European 19th Century spread of European colonialism often hides behind the spread of Christianity. China does not have a national religion of her own to save the world; it accepts all major religions. Because the fact that China as a whole does not practice Christianity Western countries deeply distrusts her. It went as far as preventing Chinese Americans being fully accepted as full equals into the American melting pot compared to many other Christian minorities of any color. I know, because I lived as a Chinese American minority in the U.S. for over 50 years.
Instead of religion, the two major pillars of teaching that China believes are Confucianism and Daoism. The corner stone of both philosophies are the teaching of Harmony. Harmony with mankind, harmony within family, within oneself, among nations, harmony between the government and the citizens and with nature. In short, China has no built in religious reason to expand. In fact Confucius teaches that “Gentlemen prefer harmony to conformity. Little people prefer conformity to Harmony”. In another word, Chinese philosophy accepts a multipolar world, whereas Western world rallies behind Christianity as the only true religion. Most important America presidential speeches are dutifully always end with “God bless America”. Americans are very proud of the fact that our money is printed with “In God we trust” to remind us that we believe in the only true God. The implication is heathens like the Chinese cannot be trusted. This is the major reason that China and Chinese Americans are not trusted by Americans.
America is very reluctant to hug China; even China has come a long way as student in learning America technology, management and values. That Chinese are good students is a well-accepted fact. Confucius taught the importance of learning. Chinese civil system was based on meritorious promotion almost 2000 years ago and it remains so in the present government. Among other reasons, this willingness to learn is most important for China’s fast progress today. Most Chinese accept the Confucius adage “When there are three people together one must be my teacher”. There is no equivalent practice in Western society. The opposite belief is more like “When there are three people together, I must be the teacher”. There are many reasons America cannot and will not hug China with respect despite China’s enormous improvement during the last thirty years. All the China bashing is due in no small account to American politicians’, scholars’ and media’s distrust of China. According to my American wife, the history teacher, the disrespect of Chinas very deeply founded due to the facts that 1) China is not a Christian Country, 2) Racially Chinese are not Caucasians and thus are inferior to all Caucasians, including whites, Indians and Latin Americans, 3) Today China does not practice communism but the legacy of the cold war of the last Century of cold war has left a deep distrust of China in the hearts of America that still remain today. 4) Culturally and philosophically China is very different from the West.
In “On China” Kissinger boldly tries to contrast American and Chinese thinking by using common practices in the two different societies. I agree that his examples are well conceived. First in warfare America always believe in overwhelming fire power. America won in Korean War dog fights because of the F16s have bigger guns than the Mig 15s. However, we are a long way from the Korean War. America still spends more on military power than the rest of the world put together.
However in today’s mutual development world to win friends by soft power is just as effective as fire power if not more. Today China is winning friends by investment, trade and helping to build infrastructures in developing countries (see “Charm Offensive: How China’s Soft Power is Transforming the World”, by Joshua Kurlantzick and “The Beijing Consensus” by Stefan Halper). And In her search for friends , China is not promoting ideology or religion. She also practices noninterference in the recipient countries internal domestic policies. According to many authors Beijing Consensus trumps over Washington Consensus in wining more friends. Instead of practicing confrontation, Chinese practices holistic approaches in international relations. This is the common Chinese approach to problem solving. This type of strategic thinking is taught by even Suntze the master who wrote “the Art of War”. Suntze taught the Chinese to balance all strategic factors before launching a war and the best way to win is without launching a war. War is the last resort after exhausting all options. In a war, as recent history shows both sides loose.
The Western approach to War is more akin to playing Chess than the playing Chinese Weiqi (known in the West as the Go game, introduced by Japan to the West). Chess is a game of confrontation and capture, in capturing the King to win often both sides are trading pieces until one side or both is devastated. Weiqi is a different strategic game. The players objective is not capture but to surround the enemy by using the least pieces. The winner wins by more spaces occupied. Quite often the game is decided by only a few spaces won. All pieces are equal; there is no power structure that distinguishes each piece. The game is played with more steps thinking ahead than chess. It is simple in move but very complicated in strategy than chess. Today a well programed computer can usually beat the best human chess player but the same cannot be said about weiqi. Please read present author’s article “Learn to play weiqi, the harmony game, for fun” Published by San Francisco State University, Confucius Institute website.
In China’s rise more of the world will be brought together by Beijing Consensus. Commerce and trade will bring the world together in Harmony instead of War, cold or hot. China is embracing Harmony Renaissance as governance philosophy (“Chinese Harmony Renaissance, What the World Must Know”, by the present author). She is willing and eager to hug America with respect, but the U.S. is not quite ready to return the hug. China is already hugging all the nations she has relation with. Because in China there is Harmony Renaissance and China believes that she must develop together with the world. China believes that a multipolar world is inevitable. The only way America will hug China in return is not for China to be more like America but for America to recognize China’s progress and accept China as an equal not an inscrutable people and culture as the old Western world saw China. China’s Harmony Renaissance means China accepts a multipolar world and willing to continue to learn and make changes for a mutual development world.
Friday, October 15, 2010
BEYOND NOBEL PEACE PRIZE, WILL HARMONY RENAISSANCE PRIZE BE FAR BEHIND?
BEYOND NOBEL PEACE PRIZE, WILL HARMONY RENAISSANCE PRIZE BE FAR BEHIND?
By Francis C W Fung, Ph.D.
Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese felon convicted for agitation aimed at subverting the Chinese government, was once quoted saying “China needs to be colonized for 300 years”. This may be the real reason that the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu. Perhaps the Committee once again could not resist the temptation of using the prize as a political tool. This award to Liu disregards the original testament of Alfred Nobel, the founder of the century old Nobel Peace prize. According to Nobel’s wishes the peace prize should be awarded to person(s) who “shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congress.”
In 1989 the Committee awarded the peace prize to Dalai Lama, who took the advice of the Tibetan elite priest class that he should be the absolute ruler of all Lama Buddhist believers in China. In such undertaking he has single handedly disrupted Chinese ethnic harmony for over 50 years. The 2010 decision of the peace award to Liu again shows that a few Westerners desire to interfere in Chinese domestic affairs. It was a pity that the Nobel peace prize was used as a political tool by the Western power unsuccessfully bent on slowing China’s growth. Again, Liu is a very convenient tool this time. By his own statement “China needs to be colonized for 300 years” Liu made no attempt to disguise his true intention of abiding by the Western bidding.
As to how far the Norwegian Committee has departed from the spirit of the Nobel Peace Prize one need only to read the soul searching book “The Nobel Peace Prize: What Nobel Really Wanted” by Fredrik S. Heffemehl. According to Heffemehl, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has come under increasing political, geopolitical and commercial pressures to make inappropriate awards. Heffemehl called it a wrong decision and illegal to award the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo, according to the website of the Swedish Newspaper Dagens Nyheter. On Oct 10, Heffemehl further criticized that the 2010 selection of the peace prize winner has violated Nobel’s intended purpose in a posting published on the website of the World Association of International Studies (WAIS), founded in 1965 at Stanford University. Nobel’s hope of breaking the vicious circle of arms races and military power games appears to be dashed in the recent years by the Committee. This particularly inappropriate 2010 award is certainly a setback of East and West Harmony and so will fraternity between nations as Nobel hoped. Nobel’s hope of redeeming his own misdeed of dynamite invention is far from fulfilled by this type of awards decision which incites differences among East and West culture. Heffemehl concluded “With all due respect to Liu Xiabo, this is yet another example that this is no longer Nobel’s Prize, it is the “Political” prize of the Norwegian Storting (The Supreme Legislature in Norway)”.
Human yearning for peace is an intuitive desire over a troubled world, whether the trouble is caused by armed or ideological confrontations such as the Cold War of the 20th Century that still has not ended in the minds of some nations. Because peace will not take hold without Harmony among nations, that is a dynamic balance of cultural influence of a multi-cultural world. In a harmonious world respect and tolerance of other cultures is a prerequisite. With the ushering in of fast growing developing countries in the 21st century, the world cannot wait for the revival of the universal common value that is Harmony. For peace to take hold harmony among nations must flourish. Peace is a static state arising from the dynamic harmony balance of the cultures of a multi-polar world that will come.
To increase world understanding and tolerance for all major cultures East and West, the world must bring back the universal value of harmony that worked in many regions for centuries. Not to undermine the Nobel peace prize, a new “Harmony Renaissance” prize can be initiated to reward those who worked hard to establish long term peace and world mutual understanding and not divisive judgments. This trend of Harmony Renaissance has gathered momentum recently as witnessed by many world harmony organizations and websites sprouting all over the world. This inevitable growth of world harmony organizations is a clear indication of the world desire for Harmony Renaissance.
At the 2004 U.N. General Assembly meeting, Hu Jintao, President of China made a speech urging the gathered nations to work for world harmony through mutual win-win development. The speech was warmly received. He called for the world to be tolerant, accepting and respecting other nation’s cultures big or small, weak or powerful. The days for Western culture to dominate the world by awarding Western standard “peace prizes” are numbered. A more universal “Harmony Renaissance” prize to work for world cultural diversity and unity in diversity will be welcomed. For the first ever 2010 “Harmony Renaissance” prize, President Hu Jintao is most deserving for the first to set the priority for world harmony at United Nations. Any other nominations?
Francis C W Fung, Ph.D.
World Harmony Organization
By Francis C W Fung, Ph.D.
Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese felon convicted for agitation aimed at subverting the Chinese government, was once quoted saying “China needs to be colonized for 300 years”. This may be the real reason that the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu. Perhaps the Committee once again could not resist the temptation of using the prize as a political tool. This award to Liu disregards the original testament of Alfred Nobel, the founder of the century old Nobel Peace prize. According to Nobel’s wishes the peace prize should be awarded to person(s) who “shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congress.”
In 1989 the Committee awarded the peace prize to Dalai Lama, who took the advice of the Tibetan elite priest class that he should be the absolute ruler of all Lama Buddhist believers in China. In such undertaking he has single handedly disrupted Chinese ethnic harmony for over 50 years. The 2010 decision of the peace award to Liu again shows that a few Westerners desire to interfere in Chinese domestic affairs. It was a pity that the Nobel peace prize was used as a political tool by the Western power unsuccessfully bent on slowing China’s growth. Again, Liu is a very convenient tool this time. By his own statement “China needs to be colonized for 300 years” Liu made no attempt to disguise his true intention of abiding by the Western bidding.
As to how far the Norwegian Committee has departed from the spirit of the Nobel Peace Prize one need only to read the soul searching book “The Nobel Peace Prize: What Nobel Really Wanted” by Fredrik S. Heffemehl. According to Heffemehl, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has come under increasing political, geopolitical and commercial pressures to make inappropriate awards. Heffemehl called it a wrong decision and illegal to award the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo, according to the website of the Swedish Newspaper Dagens Nyheter. On Oct 10, Heffemehl further criticized that the 2010 selection of the peace prize winner has violated Nobel’s intended purpose in a posting published on the website of the World Association of International Studies (WAIS), founded in 1965 at Stanford University. Nobel’s hope of breaking the vicious circle of arms races and military power games appears to be dashed in the recent years by the Committee. This particularly inappropriate 2010 award is certainly a setback of East and West Harmony and so will fraternity between nations as Nobel hoped. Nobel’s hope of redeeming his own misdeed of dynamite invention is far from fulfilled by this type of awards decision which incites differences among East and West culture. Heffemehl concluded “With all due respect to Liu Xiabo, this is yet another example that this is no longer Nobel’s Prize, it is the “Political” prize of the Norwegian Storting (The Supreme Legislature in Norway)”.
Human yearning for peace is an intuitive desire over a troubled world, whether the trouble is caused by armed or ideological confrontations such as the Cold War of the 20th Century that still has not ended in the minds of some nations. Because peace will not take hold without Harmony among nations, that is a dynamic balance of cultural influence of a multi-cultural world. In a harmonious world respect and tolerance of other cultures is a prerequisite. With the ushering in of fast growing developing countries in the 21st century, the world cannot wait for the revival of the universal common value that is Harmony. For peace to take hold harmony among nations must flourish. Peace is a static state arising from the dynamic harmony balance of the cultures of a multi-polar world that will come.
To increase world understanding and tolerance for all major cultures East and West, the world must bring back the universal value of harmony that worked in many regions for centuries. Not to undermine the Nobel peace prize, a new “Harmony Renaissance” prize can be initiated to reward those who worked hard to establish long term peace and world mutual understanding and not divisive judgments. This trend of Harmony Renaissance has gathered momentum recently as witnessed by many world harmony organizations and websites sprouting all over the world. This inevitable growth of world harmony organizations is a clear indication of the world desire for Harmony Renaissance.
At the 2004 U.N. General Assembly meeting, Hu Jintao, President of China made a speech urging the gathered nations to work for world harmony through mutual win-win development. The speech was warmly received. He called for the world to be tolerant, accepting and respecting other nation’s cultures big or small, weak or powerful. The days for Western culture to dominate the world by awarding Western standard “peace prizes” are numbered. A more universal “Harmony Renaissance” prize to work for world cultural diversity and unity in diversity will be welcomed. For the first ever 2010 “Harmony Renaissance” prize, President Hu Jintao is most deserving for the first to set the priority for world harmony at United Nations. Any other nominations?
Francis C W Fung, Ph.D.
World Harmony Organization
Saturday, May 15, 2010
CHINA’S GRAND STRATEGY EVOLVING WITH CONCEPT OF SCEINTIFIC DEVELOPMENT
CHINA’S GRAND STRATEGY EVOLVING WITH CONCEPT OF SCEINTIFIC DEVELOPMENT
By Francis C. W. Fung, PH.D.
Under the impact of Western science and civilization, China for more than two hundred years was searching for a development direction of her own, which would not entail giving up her tradition and identity. The period of search began at the end of Qing dynasty, when China suffered humiliations one after the other under the reigning colonial powers of the time. This continuing process of development struggle lasted through foreign domination, invasions and domestic upheavals until the end of the twentieth century. China’s history of trial and tribulations during this time period is well documented in literature. From it, the Chinese nation collectively paid dearly and learned the hard lessons necessary to move forward like all great national revivals of the past. Human civilization as a whole cannot afford to neglect the over 5000 years of valuable Chinese culture and tradition. That will be most regrettable.
China is moving into the 21st Century with impressive economic development unprecedented in human history for such a large nation which began with the reform and open up policy initiated by the late Deng Xiaoping. It occurred during the last 30 years of relative peace and stability after the end of the cold war era. It is understandable that the nation of China as a whole looked back at the involuntary isolation of the cold war era with a great deal of misgiving. For all nations to progress with the world it must be given the level field to interact with the outside. For great powers to exercise its naval power to contain other nation’s development is inhumane.
Having achieved relative economic successes, China is now looking to sustainable development. Great debates are occurring in China especially during the last five years on its continuing path of development and modernization. From the debates, the Chinese Central government has launched two ground breaking concepts that can open the flood gate of innovative sustainable thinking. The 2004 Concept of Scientific development led eventually to the 2006 “Decisions for the building of a harmony society”. Can China develop according to this approach? What other factors must occur in China? What are the other necessary conditions for China to stay the course? Is this the direction for socialism building with Chinese characteristics of which we so often hear? Has China finally found its unique direction of development? It is important for both the developed and the developing countries to find out. It will affect the destiny of almost one quarter of world’s population and perhaps other developing countries’ development. Will this lead to the so called Beijing Consensus? More important, will it finally take hold in China and last?
The essence of ancient Chinese culture is reverence of the “Great Way” (Dao) as taught by Laotze, and pursuit of Harmony with humility as a belief system handed down by Confucius and her other sages. Simply put, Chinese culture reveres the Great Way and has strong affinity for harmony. This affinity is reflected with prominence in the Chinese ceremonial way of life, landscaping, building design, Fengshui practices and moral codes and values. Dao is the highest order of belief and is the origin of the universe. It is nature’s order and is the unification of the scientific spirit and human spirit. It is the soul and roots of Chinese culture. A culture can never deny its own heritage. A culture which looses its own roots is devoid of its own soul.
The ultimate goal of practicing Dao is to reach inner peace and live in harmony with the universe (Tien Ren He Yi). This includes harmony with nature, harmony within the family, the society, the country and harmony among nations. To reach broad harmony, Dao must lead us to harmony through trust, justice, equity, forgiveness, tolerance and humility. Human development so far has been dominated by “Survival Aggression” with the strong overwhelming the weak, the worst examples were military conquests, colonialism and forcing one’s development model on others by force. China as a traditional agriculture, as opposed to a predominantly nomadic society, has been an exceptionally peaceful major nation that did not have a history of foreign conquest. Because of the last two hundred years of domination and humiliation by foreign imperialistic nations China today has a strong distaste to the practice of “Survival Aggression”. That is why China today is advocating harmony society and world harmony through harmony renaissance (see “China’s Harmony Renaissance- What the World Must Know” by the author).
Today the inevitable tide of harmony with nature is also beginning to catch on. The world consensus of harmony with nature will lead to the recognition of the need for harmony among nations also. Mutual development, win-win development will gradually replace the past blind zero sum mentality of world development. World harmony renaissance will release humans from the bondage of destructive- survival confrontations. It will release our collective creative energy for constructive mutual development. Human history has gone through two major phases of development. Approximately two thousand years ago, the world saw a burst of philosophical ideas spreading through the world for universal love and order. Five hundred years or so ago, the age of enlightenment and European Renaissance gave us democracy and today’s modern science. Harmony Renaissance is the third phase of development that will yield a level playing field for all nations to enjoy the fruits of common human innovation. Our collective accomplishments will far surpass the achievements of European Renaissance (see “World harmony Renaissance- Promise for a Better World” by the author).
Having achieved relative economic success during the last 30 years of reform and opening up the new China of today is faced with the dilemmas of uneven development, reconciliation of the old and new caused by breakneck speed of change. The new China of 58 years is going through unprecedented upheavals relative to its entire recorded history of over 5000 years. As a matter of fact the tumult caused by unprecedented rapid change experienced by China today, also has no parallel in human history of any major nation. At times, China overwhelmed by the impact of Western culture, appeared to be lost.
As meritorious as the philosophies of DAO and harmony as universal common values, they will not become the grand strategy of development for China. There also needs to be no fear for the so called “Beijing Consensus” that will be exported to the developing world. The future world is fast becoming a multilateral world. Just as we witness how the world conflicts brought on by attempts to claim religious superiority led to cultural clashes, the disastrous aftermath of America’s enforcing of its own democratic system on Iraq is for all to see. Religion, democracy, Dao and harmony philosophies are essential to teach us common values for our hearts to reach peace within ourselves. They are beliefs for each person to strive for according to his cultural heritage. On the other hand the grand strategy of development for any nation must develop from within and not to be forced from the outside. In a multilateral world no nation wishes to be preached at either.
So for China, its grand strategy for development must be “socialism with Chinese characteristics” as wisely announced by the consensus conclusion reached by the 17 CPC National Congress that just ended October 21st, 2007. According to the headlines, China’s grand strategy will evolve from the concept of scientific development with the objective of building a relatively prosperous, just, and harmonious society for all. And the grand strategy incorporating the objective of harmony will be the result of a comprehensive master plan of executable engineering system analysis, comprising the following critical pieces. The order of importance of each element in the following outline is not fixed, but will sure be subject to the dynamic evolvement of a complex and fluid society in its development. But the harmony spirit of the great Dao of discovering the new and old must remain intact as put forth by the author in the following summary:
ALL NATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS MUST BE CONTINULY EVOLVING AND IN TOUCH WITH WORLD DEVELOPMENT. ONCE DISTURBED FORCIBLY BY OUTSIDE FORCE INSTABILITY WILL SET IN.
CHINESE GRAND STRATEGY IS EVOLVING FROM THE 2004 CONCEPT OF SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT. IT IS, ACCORDING TO THE CPC, A SYSTEM OF CHINESE SOCIALISM WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS
CHINESE CURRENT DEVELOPMENT SHALL CONSISTS OF ECONOMIC, POLITICAL, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIETAL ELEMENTS
CONTINUE THE CURRENT MOMENTUM OF REFORM AND OPENING UP,
FINE TUNE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
EXPAND CONCEPT OF SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT INTO SYSTEM ENGINEERING GUIDE LINES
GRADUALLY INTRODUCE POLITICAL REFORM TO INTRODUCE MORE PARTICIPATION TO SUIT MODERN DEVELOPMENT
PROMULGATE LAWS TO SUPPORT ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL REFORMS. DEVELOPMENT MUST BE IN HARMONY WITH NATURE
SOCIALISM IN THE INITIAL STAGE MUST BUILD A STRONG ECONOMIC FOUNDATION. CHINA IS STILL AT THE EARLY STAGE OF SOCIALIST DEVELOPMENT
MARXISM MUST BE EVOLUTIONARY AND IN TOUCH WITH WORLD DEVELOPMENT
CHINA WILL BE FOREVER AGAINST HEGEMONY AND WILL PROMOTE MUTUAL AND WIN-WIN DEVELOPMENT
ADVOCATE DAO AND HARMONY RENAISSANCE AS NATIONAL REVIVAL
ADVOCATE HARMONY DIPLOMACY AS THE GOLDEN RULE OF WORLD GOVERNANCE
SOCIALISM WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS IS SOCIALISM WITH HARMONY
BUILD HARMONY SOCIETY WITH HARMONY BETWEEN TRADITIONAL VALUE, MODERN HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIALISTIC DEVELOPMENT
MAINTAIN HARMONY BETWEEN STATE AND DIFFERENT FORMS OF PRIVATE AND MARKET ECONOMY
PROMOTE WORLD HARMONY THROUGH ECOLOGY CONSENSUS AND UNITY OF MAN WITH NATURE. IN CHINA THE SAYING IS TIEN REN HE YI.
IN ENGLISH, LACKING A TRADITIONAL TERM PERHAPS THE APT DESCRIPITION IS COLLECTIVELY BUILDING A GREEN WORLD.
Francis C. W. Fung, PH.D.
Director General
World Harmony Organization
By Francis C. W. Fung, PH.D.
Under the impact of Western science and civilization, China for more than two hundred years was searching for a development direction of her own, which would not entail giving up her tradition and identity. The period of search began at the end of Qing dynasty, when China suffered humiliations one after the other under the reigning colonial powers of the time. This continuing process of development struggle lasted through foreign domination, invasions and domestic upheavals until the end of the twentieth century. China’s history of trial and tribulations during this time period is well documented in literature. From it, the Chinese nation collectively paid dearly and learned the hard lessons necessary to move forward like all great national revivals of the past. Human civilization as a whole cannot afford to neglect the over 5000 years of valuable Chinese culture and tradition. That will be most regrettable.
China is moving into the 21st Century with impressive economic development unprecedented in human history for such a large nation which began with the reform and open up policy initiated by the late Deng Xiaoping. It occurred during the last 30 years of relative peace and stability after the end of the cold war era. It is understandable that the nation of China as a whole looked back at the involuntary isolation of the cold war era with a great deal of misgiving. For all nations to progress with the world it must be given the level field to interact with the outside. For great powers to exercise its naval power to contain other nation’s development is inhumane.
Having achieved relative economic successes, China is now looking to sustainable development. Great debates are occurring in China especially during the last five years on its continuing path of development and modernization. From the debates, the Chinese Central government has launched two ground breaking concepts that can open the flood gate of innovative sustainable thinking. The 2004 Concept of Scientific development led eventually to the 2006 “Decisions for the building of a harmony society”. Can China develop according to this approach? What other factors must occur in China? What are the other necessary conditions for China to stay the course? Is this the direction for socialism building with Chinese characteristics of which we so often hear? Has China finally found its unique direction of development? It is important for both the developed and the developing countries to find out. It will affect the destiny of almost one quarter of world’s population and perhaps other developing countries’ development. Will this lead to the so called Beijing Consensus? More important, will it finally take hold in China and last?
The essence of ancient Chinese culture is reverence of the “Great Way” (Dao) as taught by Laotze, and pursuit of Harmony with humility as a belief system handed down by Confucius and her other sages. Simply put, Chinese culture reveres the Great Way and has strong affinity for harmony. This affinity is reflected with prominence in the Chinese ceremonial way of life, landscaping, building design, Fengshui practices and moral codes and values. Dao is the highest order of belief and is the origin of the universe. It is nature’s order and is the unification of the scientific spirit and human spirit. It is the soul and roots of Chinese culture. A culture can never deny its own heritage. A culture which looses its own roots is devoid of its own soul.
The ultimate goal of practicing Dao is to reach inner peace and live in harmony with the universe (Tien Ren He Yi). This includes harmony with nature, harmony within the family, the society, the country and harmony among nations. To reach broad harmony, Dao must lead us to harmony through trust, justice, equity, forgiveness, tolerance and humility. Human development so far has been dominated by “Survival Aggression” with the strong overwhelming the weak, the worst examples were military conquests, colonialism and forcing one’s development model on others by force. China as a traditional agriculture, as opposed to a predominantly nomadic society, has been an exceptionally peaceful major nation that did not have a history of foreign conquest. Because of the last two hundred years of domination and humiliation by foreign imperialistic nations China today has a strong distaste to the practice of “Survival Aggression”. That is why China today is advocating harmony society and world harmony through harmony renaissance (see “China’s Harmony Renaissance- What the World Must Know” by the author).
Today the inevitable tide of harmony with nature is also beginning to catch on. The world consensus of harmony with nature will lead to the recognition of the need for harmony among nations also. Mutual development, win-win development will gradually replace the past blind zero sum mentality of world development. World harmony renaissance will release humans from the bondage of destructive- survival confrontations. It will release our collective creative energy for constructive mutual development. Human history has gone through two major phases of development. Approximately two thousand years ago, the world saw a burst of philosophical ideas spreading through the world for universal love and order. Five hundred years or so ago, the age of enlightenment and European Renaissance gave us democracy and today’s modern science. Harmony Renaissance is the third phase of development that will yield a level playing field for all nations to enjoy the fruits of common human innovation. Our collective accomplishments will far surpass the achievements of European Renaissance (see “World harmony Renaissance- Promise for a Better World” by the author).
Having achieved relative economic success during the last 30 years of reform and opening up the new China of today is faced with the dilemmas of uneven development, reconciliation of the old and new caused by breakneck speed of change. The new China of 58 years is going through unprecedented upheavals relative to its entire recorded history of over 5000 years. As a matter of fact the tumult caused by unprecedented rapid change experienced by China today, also has no parallel in human history of any major nation. At times, China overwhelmed by the impact of Western culture, appeared to be lost.
As meritorious as the philosophies of DAO and harmony as universal common values, they will not become the grand strategy of development for China. There also needs to be no fear for the so called “Beijing Consensus” that will be exported to the developing world. The future world is fast becoming a multilateral world. Just as we witness how the world conflicts brought on by attempts to claim religious superiority led to cultural clashes, the disastrous aftermath of America’s enforcing of its own democratic system on Iraq is for all to see. Religion, democracy, Dao and harmony philosophies are essential to teach us common values for our hearts to reach peace within ourselves. They are beliefs for each person to strive for according to his cultural heritage. On the other hand the grand strategy of development for any nation must develop from within and not to be forced from the outside. In a multilateral world no nation wishes to be preached at either.
So for China, its grand strategy for development must be “socialism with Chinese characteristics” as wisely announced by the consensus conclusion reached by the 17 CPC National Congress that just ended October 21st, 2007. According to the headlines, China’s grand strategy will evolve from the concept of scientific development with the objective of building a relatively prosperous, just, and harmonious society for all. And the grand strategy incorporating the objective of harmony will be the result of a comprehensive master plan of executable engineering system analysis, comprising the following critical pieces. The order of importance of each element in the following outline is not fixed, but will sure be subject to the dynamic evolvement of a complex and fluid society in its development. But the harmony spirit of the great Dao of discovering the new and old must remain intact as put forth by the author in the following summary:
ALL NATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS MUST BE CONTINULY EVOLVING AND IN TOUCH WITH WORLD DEVELOPMENT. ONCE DISTURBED FORCIBLY BY OUTSIDE FORCE INSTABILITY WILL SET IN.
CHINESE GRAND STRATEGY IS EVOLVING FROM THE 2004 CONCEPT OF SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT. IT IS, ACCORDING TO THE CPC, A SYSTEM OF CHINESE SOCIALISM WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS
CHINESE CURRENT DEVELOPMENT SHALL CONSISTS OF ECONOMIC, POLITICAL, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIETAL ELEMENTS
CONTINUE THE CURRENT MOMENTUM OF REFORM AND OPENING UP,
FINE TUNE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
EXPAND CONCEPT OF SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT INTO SYSTEM ENGINEERING GUIDE LINES
GRADUALLY INTRODUCE POLITICAL REFORM TO INTRODUCE MORE PARTICIPATION TO SUIT MODERN DEVELOPMENT
PROMULGATE LAWS TO SUPPORT ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL REFORMS. DEVELOPMENT MUST BE IN HARMONY WITH NATURE
SOCIALISM IN THE INITIAL STAGE MUST BUILD A STRONG ECONOMIC FOUNDATION. CHINA IS STILL AT THE EARLY STAGE OF SOCIALIST DEVELOPMENT
MARXISM MUST BE EVOLUTIONARY AND IN TOUCH WITH WORLD DEVELOPMENT
CHINA WILL BE FOREVER AGAINST HEGEMONY AND WILL PROMOTE MUTUAL AND WIN-WIN DEVELOPMENT
ADVOCATE DAO AND HARMONY RENAISSANCE AS NATIONAL REVIVAL
ADVOCATE HARMONY DIPLOMACY AS THE GOLDEN RULE OF WORLD GOVERNANCE
SOCIALISM WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS IS SOCIALISM WITH HARMONY
BUILD HARMONY SOCIETY WITH HARMONY BETWEEN TRADITIONAL VALUE, MODERN HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIALISTIC DEVELOPMENT
MAINTAIN HARMONY BETWEEN STATE AND DIFFERENT FORMS OF PRIVATE AND MARKET ECONOMY
PROMOTE WORLD HARMONY THROUGH ECOLOGY CONSENSUS AND UNITY OF MAN WITH NATURE. IN CHINA THE SAYING IS TIEN REN HE YI.
IN ENGLISH, LACKING A TRADITIONAL TERM PERHAPS THE APT DESCRIPITION IS COLLECTIVELY BUILDING A GREEN WORLD.
Francis C. W. Fung, PH.D.
Director General
World Harmony Organization
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
FAST TRAIN FOR CHINESE ECONOMIC RECOVERY ON FAST TRACK
FAST TRAIN FOR CHINESE ECONOMIC RECOVERY ON FAST TRACK
Since the 2008 financial crisis many countries are searching for speedy economic solutions to lead us out of the worst world economic down turn since the 1929 depression. In President Obama’s 2010 state of the union speech he unleashed plans for pushing America fast train deployment ahead starting with eight billion dollar loan guarantee to Florida. He even mentioned China’s fast train progress and potential export market in his speech. For the first time since 1949 a U.S. president mentioned China in a state of the union speech in a positive till without criticism. Hopefully the fast train will also help American recovery.
Following news headlines from China Daily clearly indicates that China is moving full steam ahead to speed up her fast train deployment nationwide;
“The much anticipated Beijing to Shanghai fast train will start operation one year ahead of original schedule in 2010 because of the stimulation package. The 12 hour trip will now be only three hours.”
“At least ten new rail projects are being planned or constructed in the west now, which eventually lead to the Beibu Gulf region, the "gate" for western provinces to go to the sea. With a new rail network, even Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the far western inland will no longer be far from the coast.”
“China already has 6,552 km of rail track in operation – the most high-speed rail track in the world. Ultimately, China plans to construct a 120,000-km railway network, including 50,000-km of high-speed rail track, by 2020.”
“China now wants to export China's high-speed railway technology to North America, Europe and Latin America. State-owned Chinese companies are already building high-speed lines in Turkey and Venezuela. Many countries, including the United States, Russia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia, have also expressed interest.”
It appears that China’s fast train network and export potential is reminiscent of the successful American automobile, commercial airline development and Internet communication explosion during the 20th Century. In each case America has the internal market as initial launching pad to jump start ahead of the world. America with her vast North American continent land mass in each of the above cases was able to fully utilize her market and manufacturing resources to become leader of the world in those important industries.
In my field of study, the commercial airline space, America the dynamic young country after Second World War was able to attract many talented scientists from Europe and Asia to help build the biggest aerospace industrial center in the world. As international commercial air travel expands Europe was caught unprepared to play catch up. Half a century later America still dominates the commercial airline industry.
Three decades ago America realized she was behind Japan and Europe in fast train deployment because of her over reliance on the automobile. Because of oil crisis there was a general interest to explore the use of fast train to complement airline travel. One of the promising routes is the heavily used corridor between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The author had the opportunity to be involved with the Las Vegas city planning commission as a consultant. Unfortunately despite active promotion and considerable interest the project did not materialize. Now the project has lost its luster and imitative especially in this economic down turn. Unless there will be Federal stimulus funding as the case in Florida the project will not happen because of lack of funding.
In the fast train case, China’s large and difficult land mass and huge population call for more rail than automobile travel. Her government funded policy of long range infrastructure planning also is paying off. Over the last two decades she was willing to pay for Japan, German and France technology to build on. Today she has developed her own proprietary fast train industry with over 900 relevant international high speed train patents. Chinese companies plan to bid for contracts of building high-speed railways in the United States as China is willing to share its advanced technologies.
The future of fast train world market looks bright as the concern for energy conservation is growing. With China’s head start and her difficult terrain and huge domestic market she will continue to build momentum. FAST TRAIN WILL SURE BE THE LOCOMOTIVE FOR CHINESE ECONOMIC RECOVERY ON FAST TRACK.
Francis C W Fung, Ph.D.
Director General
World Harmony Organization
San Francisco, CA
francis@wsorldharmonyorg.net
Since the 2008 financial crisis many countries are searching for speedy economic solutions to lead us out of the worst world economic down turn since the 1929 depression. In President Obama’s 2010 state of the union speech he unleashed plans for pushing America fast train deployment ahead starting with eight billion dollar loan guarantee to Florida. He even mentioned China’s fast train progress and potential export market in his speech. For the first time since 1949 a U.S. president mentioned China in a state of the union speech in a positive till without criticism. Hopefully the fast train will also help American recovery.
Following news headlines from China Daily clearly indicates that China is moving full steam ahead to speed up her fast train deployment nationwide;
“The much anticipated Beijing to Shanghai fast train will start operation one year ahead of original schedule in 2010 because of the stimulation package. The 12 hour trip will now be only three hours.”
“At least ten new rail projects are being planned or constructed in the west now, which eventually lead to the Beibu Gulf region, the "gate" for western provinces to go to the sea. With a new rail network, even Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the far western inland will no longer be far from the coast.”
“China already has 6,552 km of rail track in operation – the most high-speed rail track in the world. Ultimately, China plans to construct a 120,000-km railway network, including 50,000-km of high-speed rail track, by 2020.”
“China now wants to export China's high-speed railway technology to North America, Europe and Latin America. State-owned Chinese companies are already building high-speed lines in Turkey and Venezuela. Many countries, including the United States, Russia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia, have also expressed interest.”
It appears that China’s fast train network and export potential is reminiscent of the successful American automobile, commercial airline development and Internet communication explosion during the 20th Century. In each case America has the internal market as initial launching pad to jump start ahead of the world. America with her vast North American continent land mass in each of the above cases was able to fully utilize her market and manufacturing resources to become leader of the world in those important industries.
In my field of study, the commercial airline space, America the dynamic young country after Second World War was able to attract many talented scientists from Europe and Asia to help build the biggest aerospace industrial center in the world. As international commercial air travel expands Europe was caught unprepared to play catch up. Half a century later America still dominates the commercial airline industry.
Three decades ago America realized she was behind Japan and Europe in fast train deployment because of her over reliance on the automobile. Because of oil crisis there was a general interest to explore the use of fast train to complement airline travel. One of the promising routes is the heavily used corridor between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The author had the opportunity to be involved with the Las Vegas city planning commission as a consultant. Unfortunately despite active promotion and considerable interest the project did not materialize. Now the project has lost its luster and imitative especially in this economic down turn. Unless there will be Federal stimulus funding as the case in Florida the project will not happen because of lack of funding.
In the fast train case, China’s large and difficult land mass and huge population call for more rail than automobile travel. Her government funded policy of long range infrastructure planning also is paying off. Over the last two decades she was willing to pay for Japan, German and France technology to build on. Today she has developed her own proprietary fast train industry with over 900 relevant international high speed train patents. Chinese companies plan to bid for contracts of building high-speed railways in the United States as China is willing to share its advanced technologies.
The future of fast train world market looks bright as the concern for energy conservation is growing. With China’s head start and her difficult terrain and huge domestic market she will continue to build momentum. FAST TRAIN WILL SURE BE THE LOCOMOTIVE FOR CHINESE ECONOMIC RECOVERY ON FAST TRACK.
Francis C W Fung, Ph.D.
Director General
World Harmony Organization
San Francisco, CA
francis@wsorldharmonyorg.net
Thursday, March 4, 2010
TO NUKE OR NOT TO NUKE: WHY NOT STIRLING SOLAR POWER?
TO NUKE OR NOT TO NUKE: WHY NOT STIRLING SOLAR POWER?
By Francis C W Fung, Ph.D.
James C Townsend, Ph.D.
“On July 17, 2008 Al Gore, former US Vice President, made an important US energy independent announcement. The main theme was to announce the timely and important initiative of converting all US electricity production to green energy in a decade, by 2018. The initiative is wise and admirable, but is it realistic? Is it achievable and how? Currently the US electricity generation is 70% by fossil fuel, 20% by nuclear power and only 10% by solar, hydro, wind and other forms of renewable energy. Gore’s ambitious goal is achievable if supported by concerted national efforts of Solar–Stirling Engine programs to gradually replace existing fossil fuel power plants, large or small.
“America is a country of vast resources and can do spirit demonstrated by the mass mobilization of WWII in airplane manufacturing capability. Half a century later the world has not yet caught up. In the urgency of the present national energy and climate crisis, the same ‘can do’ attitude can be applied to the Green Energy for Electricity Initiative (GENEI) for success. The GENEI policy will put US so far ahead in Solar–Stirling system manufacturing that the world will not be able to catch up. The momentum of GENEI advocacy will make us the largest energy technology and Stirling Engine export nation in the history of world green energy technology and product export. The potential world market of GENEI technology and products together with our reduction in oil imports can be so great as to more than halve the current American trade deficit. The US is in great need of a president who will adhere to the mission and vision advanced by Al Gore.”
Above are the opening two paragraphs from a paper titled “Green Energy for Electricity Initiative (GENEI), Alternative to Nuclear and Fossil Energy” (Appendix 1) by the first author on July 18, 2008. Now, on Feb. 16, 2010 President Obama announced an $8.33 billion loan guarantee for the new Vogtle nuclear reactors, the first step in the Administration's push to jump-start the dormant U.S. nuclear construction industry. Obama also urged Congress to set aside political differences and triple the budget for nuclear loan guarantees. "On an issue that affects our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, we can't keep on being mired in the same old stale debates between the left and the right, between environmentalists and entrepreneurs," Obama said.
In view of this unprecedented announcement by Obama, for the first time in over 30 years, the Nuke debate has come back in full force, so as to be able to bring back a “Nuclear Power Renaissance” according to some circles. As stated by Michael Grunwald in “Why Obama’s Nuclear Bet Won’t Pay Off” (Appendix 2), “Obama did acknowledge ‘some serious drawbacks with respect to nuclear energy,’ but the drawbacks he mentioned — waste disposal and reactor safety — are not the real obstacles to a rebirth. It would be nice to have a permanent Yucca Mountain-style repository for spent nuclear fuel, but for now plants have been storing their waste on-site without major problems. And the nuclear industry's safety record has improved dramatically in the 30 years since the Three Mile Island meltdown, although there are still occasional blips like a recent radioactive leak at a Vermont plant. The NRC is not exactly a hostile regulator, but sometimes it does show teeth; in October, it identified problems with the Westinghouse AP 1000 reactor design, which could create additional delays for nearly half the proposed new reactors, including the ones at Vogtle.
“But waste disposal problems, safety issues and regulatory delays do create a much more serious obstacle to a nuclear comeback: They jack up the already exorbitant cost of construction. That is the truly serious drawback of nuclear energy. Recent studies have priced new nuclear power at 25-30 cents per kilowatt-hour, about four times the cost of producing juice with new wind, or coal plants, or ten times the cost of reducing the need for electricity through investments in efficiency.
“Meanwhile, nuclear costs keep spiraling out of control; last year, the estimates for several reactors doubled, and for one Pennsylvania reactor more than tripled. This is why credit rating agencies keep downgrading utilities with nuclear ambitions, which increases their borrowing costs and makes their projects even more expensive.”
As explained in Appendix 1,”The cost of nuclear power plants is manifolds higher than the equivalent Solar–Stirling Engine power plants because of the strict need and regulation requirements to prevent nuclear radioactivity leaks. All nuclear power plants must be housed in huge fortified containment housing, and all systems of hot and cooling water circulation must be heavily protected and isolated. The construction cycle is also unduly long, generally over 5 years. Whereas, for Solar–Stirling power plants, without need for civil structures, site constructions can be less than a year. Despite all the built in safety factors for nuclear power plants, mechanical failures and human errors do occur. Accidents like Three Mile Island in the US and Chernobyl in Russia is unavoidable and the consequences are too dear to accept.”
Besides the unlikelihood of Wall Street financing of nukes without a prohibitive Federal subsidy and the issues of safety and nuclear proliferation of nuke spent fuel treatment mentioned above, there are a multitude of reasons not to go for a Nuclear Power Renaissance. Following are some of the pro and con reasons to say no to Nuke:
1) The five years required for nuclear site construction (after all delays for permits and environmental reviews) is so long that nuclear plants cannot answer current financial and job recovery needs.
2) In comparison, the short onsite construction time of typically less than one year for a field of Solar–Stirling engine power plants can provide immediate jobs in both manufacturing and construction, helping to meet current financial and job recovery needs.
3) Massive Stirling engine fabrication for electric generation can utilize surplus Detroit internal combustion engine manufacturing facilities that will otherwise be idled as automobile electrification comes in full force in the very near future.
4) The strategy of reusing engine-manufacturing facilities provides hope for reviving Detroit’s economy; this is a national priority that demonstrates the principle of efficiency and conservation manifested to the nth degree.
5) Massive deployment of nuclear power plants nationwide will need expansion of expensive special manufacturing machinery and facilities, which will be very time consuming and further extend the dilemma of the nuclear site construction time being too long to help the current financial crisis. (For one discussion of the costs, see <http://www.nirs.org/nukerelapse/calvert/highcostnpower_mdpirg.pdf>.)
6) Stirling electric generation is inherently modular. Individual modules range in power from 1kW to 50 kW or more and can be grouped together in multiples to generate as much power as a nuclear plant. So, a Solar–Stirling power plant can be built up incrementally to any size desired as the need grows.
7) Stirling electric generation can also be built in a distributed manner at all appropriate locations; a single 50 kW module can easily fit in a less than 0.1-acre site. Nuclear plants are very location sensitive because of their large structural size and area requirements for safety and strong security.
8) Nuclear plants must be built near water for massive cooling, which will infringe upon prime land and can cause thermal pollution. The Solar–Stirling power plant does not need cooling water and thus can be built in unoccupied desert lands such as those in the U.S. west and southwest.
9) Stirling engines are multi-fuel external heat engines. Besides solar energy, they can be powered by geothermal heat, waste heat, and biomass or any combustible waste as fuel.
10) Currently America Solar–Stirling Engine technology development leads the world. We must act in time to stay ahead, so as not to loose the massive market for Solar–Stirling power plants in the developing world. An economically attractive approach is to jump start development by teaming up with China immediately to exploit the win–win advantages offered by both sides. The biggest Solar–Stirling engine market will be China, followed by the developing world.
11) The World Harmony Organization is already in active discussion with leaders of China on a “Grand Alliance Strategy for Stirling Power”. The developing world is ready and willing to go forward with electrification by Solar–Stirling power. It is not ready for Nukes and should be discouraged from going on that wrong track.
12) In his Feb. 16, 2010 speech, President Obama made a strong pitch that America must retain its capability as the number one exporter of nuclear power plants by building the new Vogtle plant and other nuclear reactors. But, the export of nuclear power plants concurrently necessitates the shipping of enriched uranium fuel to developing countries. The devastating effect of nuclear proliferation is not limited to the explosive destruction of nuclear weapons but also includes the radioactivity of the enriched uranium and its fission products. Transporting nuclear fuel is more dangerous than transporting a biological virus because the effect of any nuclear fuel leakage has a longer life span than any leakage of a biological virus. The world is more connected than most people realize — what we leak will eventually spread around the world. It is not responsible for a Nobel Peace Prize winner to advocate the export of nuclear fuels.
13) America is fortunately very abundant in solar power. We do not need to resort to more Nukes when we have the technology to quickly exploit that readily available, safe, and environmentally friendly energy. We already have 104 nuclear power plants spread around the country; that’s enough.
In Service of Stirling Engine Renaissance
General Partner
Green Energy Stirling Engine Partnership (GESEP)
San Francisco, CA
References
1. Green Energy for Electricity Initiative (GENEI) – Alternative to Nuclear and Fossil Energy, Francis C. W. Fung, Ph.D., July 18, 2008 (See Appendix 1)
2. Why Obama's Nuclear Bet Won't Pay Off, Michael Grunwald, February 18, 2010 (See Appendix 2)
3. Stirling Energy Alliance (SEA) Grand Strategy, Francis C W Fung, Ph.D., General Partner, Green Energy Stirling Engine Partnership (GESEP) (See Appendix 3)
4. Stirling Engine Renaissance in 21st Century, Francis C W Fung, Ph.D., September 2006, World Harmony Organization (Available on request from <francis@worldharmonyorg.net>.)
By Francis C W Fung, Ph.D.
James C Townsend, Ph.D.
“On July 17, 2008 Al Gore, former US Vice President, made an important US energy independent announcement. The main theme was to announce the timely and important initiative of converting all US electricity production to green energy in a decade, by 2018. The initiative is wise and admirable, but is it realistic? Is it achievable and how? Currently the US electricity generation is 70% by fossil fuel, 20% by nuclear power and only 10% by solar, hydro, wind and other forms of renewable energy. Gore’s ambitious goal is achievable if supported by concerted national efforts of Solar–Stirling Engine programs to gradually replace existing fossil fuel power plants, large or small.
“America is a country of vast resources and can do spirit demonstrated by the mass mobilization of WWII in airplane manufacturing capability. Half a century later the world has not yet caught up. In the urgency of the present national energy and climate crisis, the same ‘can do’ attitude can be applied to the Green Energy for Electricity Initiative (GENEI) for success. The GENEI policy will put US so far ahead in Solar–Stirling system manufacturing that the world will not be able to catch up. The momentum of GENEI advocacy will make us the largest energy technology and Stirling Engine export nation in the history of world green energy technology and product export. The potential world market of GENEI technology and products together with our reduction in oil imports can be so great as to more than halve the current American trade deficit. The US is in great need of a president who will adhere to the mission and vision advanced by Al Gore.”
Above are the opening two paragraphs from a paper titled “Green Energy for Electricity Initiative (GENEI), Alternative to Nuclear and Fossil Energy” (Appendix 1) by the first author on July 18, 2008. Now, on Feb. 16, 2010 President Obama announced an $8.33 billion loan guarantee for the new Vogtle nuclear reactors, the first step in the Administration's push to jump-start the dormant U.S. nuclear construction industry. Obama also urged Congress to set aside political differences and triple the budget for nuclear loan guarantees. "On an issue that affects our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, we can't keep on being mired in the same old stale debates between the left and the right, between environmentalists and entrepreneurs," Obama said.
In view of this unprecedented announcement by Obama, for the first time in over 30 years, the Nuke debate has come back in full force, so as to be able to bring back a “Nuclear Power Renaissance” according to some circles. As stated by Michael Grunwald in “Why Obama’s Nuclear Bet Won’t Pay Off” (Appendix 2), “Obama did acknowledge ‘some serious drawbacks with respect to nuclear energy,’ but the drawbacks he mentioned — waste disposal and reactor safety — are not the real obstacles to a rebirth. It would be nice to have a permanent Yucca Mountain-style repository for spent nuclear fuel, but for now plants have been storing their waste on-site without major problems. And the nuclear industry's safety record has improved dramatically in the 30 years since the Three Mile Island meltdown, although there are still occasional blips like a recent radioactive leak at a Vermont plant. The NRC is not exactly a hostile regulator, but sometimes it does show teeth; in October, it identified problems with the Westinghouse AP 1000 reactor design, which could create additional delays for nearly half the proposed new reactors, including the ones at Vogtle.
“But waste disposal problems, safety issues and regulatory delays do create a much more serious obstacle to a nuclear comeback: They jack up the already exorbitant cost of construction. That is the truly serious drawback of nuclear energy. Recent studies have priced new nuclear power at 25-30 cents per kilowatt-hour, about four times the cost of producing juice with new wind, or coal plants, or ten times the cost of reducing the need for electricity through investments in efficiency.
“Meanwhile, nuclear costs keep spiraling out of control; last year, the estimates for several reactors doubled, and for one Pennsylvania reactor more than tripled. This is why credit rating agencies keep downgrading utilities with nuclear ambitions, which increases their borrowing costs and makes their projects even more expensive.”
As explained in Appendix 1,”The cost of nuclear power plants is manifolds higher than the equivalent Solar–Stirling Engine power plants because of the strict need and regulation requirements to prevent nuclear radioactivity leaks. All nuclear power plants must be housed in huge fortified containment housing, and all systems of hot and cooling water circulation must be heavily protected and isolated. The construction cycle is also unduly long, generally over 5 years. Whereas, for Solar–Stirling power plants, without need for civil structures, site constructions can be less than a year. Despite all the built in safety factors for nuclear power plants, mechanical failures and human errors do occur. Accidents like Three Mile Island in the US and Chernobyl in Russia is unavoidable and the consequences are too dear to accept.”
Besides the unlikelihood of Wall Street financing of nukes without a prohibitive Federal subsidy and the issues of safety and nuclear proliferation of nuke spent fuel treatment mentioned above, there are a multitude of reasons not to go for a Nuclear Power Renaissance. Following are some of the pro and con reasons to say no to Nuke:
1) The five years required for nuclear site construction (after all delays for permits and environmental reviews) is so long that nuclear plants cannot answer current financial and job recovery needs.
2) In comparison, the short onsite construction time of typically less than one year for a field of Solar–Stirling engine power plants can provide immediate jobs in both manufacturing and construction, helping to meet current financial and job recovery needs.
3) Massive Stirling engine fabrication for electric generation can utilize surplus Detroit internal combustion engine manufacturing facilities that will otherwise be idled as automobile electrification comes in full force in the very near future.
4) The strategy of reusing engine-manufacturing facilities provides hope for reviving Detroit’s economy; this is a national priority that demonstrates the principle of efficiency and conservation manifested to the nth degree.
5) Massive deployment of nuclear power plants nationwide will need expansion of expensive special manufacturing machinery and facilities, which will be very time consuming and further extend the dilemma of the nuclear site construction time being too long to help the current financial crisis. (For one discussion of the costs, see <http://www.nirs.org/nukerelapse/calvert/highcostnpower_mdpirg.pdf>.)
6) Stirling electric generation is inherently modular. Individual modules range in power from 1kW to 50 kW or more and can be grouped together in multiples to generate as much power as a nuclear plant. So, a Solar–Stirling power plant can be built up incrementally to any size desired as the need grows.
7) Stirling electric generation can also be built in a distributed manner at all appropriate locations; a single 50 kW module can easily fit in a less than 0.1-acre site. Nuclear plants are very location sensitive because of their large structural size and area requirements for safety and strong security.
8) Nuclear plants must be built near water for massive cooling, which will infringe upon prime land and can cause thermal pollution. The Solar–Stirling power plant does not need cooling water and thus can be built in unoccupied desert lands such as those in the U.S. west and southwest.
9) Stirling engines are multi-fuel external heat engines. Besides solar energy, they can be powered by geothermal heat, waste heat, and biomass or any combustible waste as fuel.
10) Currently America Solar–Stirling Engine technology development leads the world. We must act in time to stay ahead, so as not to loose the massive market for Solar–Stirling power plants in the developing world. An economically attractive approach is to jump start development by teaming up with China immediately to exploit the win–win advantages offered by both sides. The biggest Solar–Stirling engine market will be China, followed by the developing world.
11) The World Harmony Organization is already in active discussion with leaders of China on a “Grand Alliance Strategy for Stirling Power”. The developing world is ready and willing to go forward with electrification by Solar–Stirling power. It is not ready for Nukes and should be discouraged from going on that wrong track.
12) In his Feb. 16, 2010 speech, President Obama made a strong pitch that America must retain its capability as the number one exporter of nuclear power plants by building the new Vogtle plant and other nuclear reactors. But, the export of nuclear power plants concurrently necessitates the shipping of enriched uranium fuel to developing countries. The devastating effect of nuclear proliferation is not limited to the explosive destruction of nuclear weapons but also includes the radioactivity of the enriched uranium and its fission products. Transporting nuclear fuel is more dangerous than transporting a biological virus because the effect of any nuclear fuel leakage has a longer life span than any leakage of a biological virus. The world is more connected than most people realize — what we leak will eventually spread around the world. It is not responsible for a Nobel Peace Prize winner to advocate the export of nuclear fuels.
13) America is fortunately very abundant in solar power. We do not need to resort to more Nukes when we have the technology to quickly exploit that readily available, safe, and environmentally friendly energy. We already have 104 nuclear power plants spread around the country; that’s enough.
In Service of Stirling Engine Renaissance
General Partner
Green Energy Stirling Engine Partnership (GESEP)
San Francisco, CA
References
1. Green Energy for Electricity Initiative (GENEI) – Alternative to Nuclear and Fossil Energy, Francis C. W. Fung, Ph.D., July 18, 2008 (See Appendix 1)
2. Why Obama's Nuclear Bet Won't Pay Off, Michael Grunwald, February 18, 2010 (See Appendix 2)
3. Stirling Energy Alliance (SEA) Grand Strategy, Francis C W Fung, Ph.D., General Partner, Green Energy Stirling Engine Partnership (GESEP) (See Appendix 3)
4. Stirling Engine Renaissance in 21st Century, Francis C W Fung, Ph.D., September 2006, World Harmony Organization (Available on request from <francis@worldharmonyorg.net>.)
China's unstoppable move to modernity as a cultural state
China's unstoppable move to modernity as a cultural state
By Francis C W Fung (chinadaily.com.cn)Updated: 2010-03-02 09:29
China missed out on the 19th Century industrialization. This time she is moving towards modernity with determination as a Cultural State. Soon President Obama will go to Indonesia and Australia for state visits. He will be likely welcomed as a return of the favorite son and will be told that China's growth is good for Indonesia. In Australia he will hear that for the first time, a white Anglo-Saxon nation state's continuing growth is dependent on China.
In a Feb 1, 2010 PBS Charlie Rose interview, Larry Summers, economic adviser to President Obama, offered the following summary of his view on the 21st Century. First, the most momentous event in the 21st Century is the rise of the developing world, not the current financial crises. Second, the most important thing a major nation must do is to empower the growth of the vast middle class. Third, in the 21st Century we must know how to harmonize with the developing world, most of all with China.
Above vision seem in all respect a fit description of China's growing momentum as analyzed in detail by Martin Jacques's book "When China Rules the World". Contrary to the title of the book, Jacques's final conclusion is that China will not rule the world. He believes the rise of China will be the revival of the Chinese culture, and China will resume its heritage of a magnificent civilization as a Cultural State.
Martin Jacques also argued strongly that modernity is not necessarily Westernization specifically in reference to China. China is so immense, following her major developed cities and regions, her rural areas still have a lot of room to grow. Jacques with in depth analysis to differentiate China from the European Political States also defined China as a Cultural State and not a Political State because of her long civilization. Of interest, Jacques pointed out that China as a Cultural State in her development will revisit her ancient cultural heritage and rediscover her cultural roots such as Confucianism and Daoism and all their teaching of Harmony. Also China in her move towards pluralism will invent her own democracy. This is supported by John and Doris Naisbitt, in their 2009 book China's Megatrends. John and Doris detailed in their book that a top down and bottom up convergence democracy is emerging in China that is holding the government accountable.
China's move to modernity is unstoppable despite America's intervention with the so called Smart Diplomacy. China's growth will benefit not only her but the whole world. Further, China will not challenge America's military hard power rather in soft power because she is a cultural state. Within China as a cultural state various political systems are allowed. That was the terms on which Hong Kong returned to China as one country two systems. In the same way the mainland extends her hand to Taiwan for reconciliation.
China's growth is unstoppable because the momentum she has generated within and the vast potential she has created for her continuing growth together with the world. The Western media in its eagerness to be politically correct still writes with deep rooted Cold War mentality. Is China really a communist state according to our Cold War definition? Will bring back the Cold War work to stop China growth? America took her eyes off the ball because of preoccupation with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars during the last ten years. During that time China achieved unprecedented growth in human history in scale and speed. In the future we have no choice but to harmonize with China for win-win mutual growth as implied by Larry Summers. Any Smart Diplomacy in criticizing China's Internet management, selling Arms to Taiwan and meeting with Dalai Lama will only demonstrate to the developing world that we are interfering in China's internal affairs. Such is the affinity of the developing world with China as the leading developing nation.
China's growth for our own healthy perspective should be seen as the simultaneous growth of a massive collection of Chinese regions such as Pearl Delta, Yangtze Delta, Beihai Delta and cities like Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Wuhan, Jilin, Xian and even Urumqi among many. Imagine this incredibly large number of formidable regions and cities are growing in the tradition of Japan and the four Asian Tigers with Confucian work ethics? The Chinese government today sans any political agenda, is single mindedly focused on bringing 1.3 billion citizens to the goal of better life with dignity according to Chinese Premier Wen JiaBao in a recent chat with Chinese net citizens. China is developing with the concept of scientific development towards a harmonious society. Harmony Renaissance is China's development as a cultural state.
There has been heavy criticism by Western media that China's economy grows by less desirable autocratic capitalism because the West believes modernization means Westernization. This is our double standard of passing our judgment onto China when the Chinese move towards modernity is actually very similar to the way the four Asian Tigers in their move to modernity during the 20th Century. They all follow Confucius tradition with heavy borrowing of technology from the West. In China's case however, her development model consists of a hybrid system of government guiding both State and private industries according to Martin Jacques. This Chinese innovation and success is remarkable due to the ability of the State owned enterprises can also go public and raise private capital and the private industries at times also get federal funding. This two way flexibility is what turned around the failing Chinese State Owned Enterprises and helped many private industries to flourish. This flexibility is what Deng Xiaoping called "Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones" and is quite a stroke of Chinese genius.
China is not a political nation state. She is a cultural state. She goes through all measures to prove non interference in other nation's politics. She has neither political agenda nor a development model to enforce on others. This is what makes her attractive to developing nations as a partner. China has 5,000 years of cultural tradition and preeminence. Her ancient cultural influence was extended mostly through harmony rather than outright conquest. A long lasting continuous culture like China's cannot be subject to broad criticism from a young dynamic country such as America without America appearing rude and hubris to other developing ancient cultures.
China development in harmony with Asian, African and developing nations of the world is particularly worth mentioning. Today China is the largest investor in Asia and Africa according to Martin Jacques. China's labor and technical teams are also busy working to build badly needed infrastructure in Africa. China's complementary development and affinity with the developing world will thus continue to grow with the rise of the developing world during the 21st Century. This move towards world harmony and mutual development is totally unstoppable.
The author is the General Director of World Harmony Organization. The opinions expressed are his own.
By Francis C W Fung (chinadaily.com.cn)Updated: 2010-03-02 09:29
China missed out on the 19th Century industrialization. This time she is moving towards modernity with determination as a Cultural State. Soon President Obama will go to Indonesia and Australia for state visits. He will be likely welcomed as a return of the favorite son and will be told that China's growth is good for Indonesia. In Australia he will hear that for the first time, a white Anglo-Saxon nation state's continuing growth is dependent on China.
In a Feb 1, 2010 PBS Charlie Rose interview, Larry Summers, economic adviser to President Obama, offered the following summary of his view on the 21st Century. First, the most momentous event in the 21st Century is the rise of the developing world, not the current financial crises. Second, the most important thing a major nation must do is to empower the growth of the vast middle class. Third, in the 21st Century we must know how to harmonize with the developing world, most of all with China.
Above vision seem in all respect a fit description of China's growing momentum as analyzed in detail by Martin Jacques's book "When China Rules the World". Contrary to the title of the book, Jacques's final conclusion is that China will not rule the world. He believes the rise of China will be the revival of the Chinese culture, and China will resume its heritage of a magnificent civilization as a Cultural State.
Martin Jacques also argued strongly that modernity is not necessarily Westernization specifically in reference to China. China is so immense, following her major developed cities and regions, her rural areas still have a lot of room to grow. Jacques with in depth analysis to differentiate China from the European Political States also defined China as a Cultural State and not a Political State because of her long civilization. Of interest, Jacques pointed out that China as a Cultural State in her development will revisit her ancient cultural heritage and rediscover her cultural roots such as Confucianism and Daoism and all their teaching of Harmony. Also China in her move towards pluralism will invent her own democracy. This is supported by John and Doris Naisbitt, in their 2009 book China's Megatrends. John and Doris detailed in their book that a top down and bottom up convergence democracy is emerging in China that is holding the government accountable.
China's move to modernity is unstoppable despite America's intervention with the so called Smart Diplomacy. China's growth will benefit not only her but the whole world. Further, China will not challenge America's military hard power rather in soft power because she is a cultural state. Within China as a cultural state various political systems are allowed. That was the terms on which Hong Kong returned to China as one country two systems. In the same way the mainland extends her hand to Taiwan for reconciliation.
China's growth is unstoppable because the momentum she has generated within and the vast potential she has created for her continuing growth together with the world. The Western media in its eagerness to be politically correct still writes with deep rooted Cold War mentality. Is China really a communist state according to our Cold War definition? Will bring back the Cold War work to stop China growth? America took her eyes off the ball because of preoccupation with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars during the last ten years. During that time China achieved unprecedented growth in human history in scale and speed. In the future we have no choice but to harmonize with China for win-win mutual growth as implied by Larry Summers. Any Smart Diplomacy in criticizing China's Internet management, selling Arms to Taiwan and meeting with Dalai Lama will only demonstrate to the developing world that we are interfering in China's internal affairs. Such is the affinity of the developing world with China as the leading developing nation.
China's growth for our own healthy perspective should be seen as the simultaneous growth of a massive collection of Chinese regions such as Pearl Delta, Yangtze Delta, Beihai Delta and cities like Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Wuhan, Jilin, Xian and even Urumqi among many. Imagine this incredibly large number of formidable regions and cities are growing in the tradition of Japan and the four Asian Tigers with Confucian work ethics? The Chinese government today sans any political agenda, is single mindedly focused on bringing 1.3 billion citizens to the goal of better life with dignity according to Chinese Premier Wen JiaBao in a recent chat with Chinese net citizens. China is developing with the concept of scientific development towards a harmonious society. Harmony Renaissance is China's development as a cultural state.
There has been heavy criticism by Western media that China's economy grows by less desirable autocratic capitalism because the West believes modernization means Westernization. This is our double standard of passing our judgment onto China when the Chinese move towards modernity is actually very similar to the way the four Asian Tigers in their move to modernity during the 20th Century. They all follow Confucius tradition with heavy borrowing of technology from the West. In China's case however, her development model consists of a hybrid system of government guiding both State and private industries according to Martin Jacques. This Chinese innovation and success is remarkable due to the ability of the State owned enterprises can also go public and raise private capital and the private industries at times also get federal funding. This two way flexibility is what turned around the failing Chinese State Owned Enterprises and helped many private industries to flourish. This flexibility is what Deng Xiaoping called "Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones" and is quite a stroke of Chinese genius.
China is not a political nation state. She is a cultural state. She goes through all measures to prove non interference in other nation's politics. She has neither political agenda nor a development model to enforce on others. This is what makes her attractive to developing nations as a partner. China has 5,000 years of cultural tradition and preeminence. Her ancient cultural influence was extended mostly through harmony rather than outright conquest. A long lasting continuous culture like China's cannot be subject to broad criticism from a young dynamic country such as America without America appearing rude and hubris to other developing ancient cultures.
China development in harmony with Asian, African and developing nations of the world is particularly worth mentioning. Today China is the largest investor in Asia and Africa according to Martin Jacques. China's labor and technical teams are also busy working to build badly needed infrastructure in Africa. China's complementary development and affinity with the developing world will thus continue to grow with the rise of the developing world during the 21st Century. This move towards world harmony and mutual development is totally unstoppable.
The author is the General Director of World Harmony Organization. The opinions expressed are his own.
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