The West Can Learn A Thing Or Two From China

By Paul Chong
22 January 2020

A certain wise old man from the village was confronted by a fresh young university graduate who challenged his wisdom. “Hey, old man, I understand you are well renown for your wisdom in the village. Tell me, I have this little bird in my hand. Is it dead or alive?”
The old man simply replied, “It’s up to you.”
“What do you mean?”
Here wisdom, age & experience, rather than knowledge & youth, had the better of the day’s challenge, “ Its fate rests entirely with you . . . dead or alive depending upon you squeezing it or releasing it & the little bird will fly away.”

China with a civilisation of more than 5 thousand years would diminish a younger country with only a couple hundred of years history. In the process of human growth, a child needs first to learn how to sit, crawl, toddle, walk & then run. By the same token that would be the process of growth of a nation.

From the page of the short history, you learn “How the West Was Won” of war atrocities, extermination & exploitation of the lesser Red Indians who had but bows & arrows. Among themselves, their struggle for survival was essentially based upon “Fastest Gun Alive” or “Quick On the Draw”. Throughout its short history the American have always been saying “If you are not with us then you are against us.” Its bullying syndrome, threats, destruction, conquests & intimidation ever present. The Americans have nothing to fear but fear itself. There is no country on earth strong or stupid enough to confront the US. Evidently, US goes about its world affairs under the guise of democracy & hidden agenda.

China is a big civilised nation with a big heart. Right from its Dynasty days, all that China wanted was trade. China never planted flags on foreign shores to lay claims of ownership nor engaged themselves in wars against foreign lands or claiming so-called “terra nullius” such as Australia.

China is now standing tall & economically powerful. The benevolent reposing dragon has gone through more than a century of humiliation by some eight western nations. China is reviving itself to its past greatness. Its benevolence extends to establishing the Belt & Road Initiative 一带一路 (Yi Dai Yi Lu) whereby China is sharing its high level of technology, building infrastructures, opening up communications & extending its economic arms in all its win-win deals. A new world will be born bonded in close cooperation instead of confrontation. Peace & harmony & of course prosperity would prevail.

With the rise of China (economically) & the decline of the West, and though still harbouring its secret agenda in containing China, I believe the West is beginning to want to learn from China, for example governance and innovation (with Chinese characteristics), Wildlife Conservation, the assiduous nature of Chinese working hard, Chinese cultural value, the deep sense of patriotism, its language & essentially what made the Chinese tick.

The process of learning never cease. Knowledge is ever expanding & changing. What we know today maybe obsolete tomorrow. Let’s learn, share & grow together. There is no question of theft. An “artificial sun” is being built & would be commissioned by China in 2020. Think what this could mean . . . clean controlled energy through nuclear fusion with a core temperature 7 times that of the natural sun.

To end here, I pose this question: Is it wise to hurt your own self, consciously or otherwise, by hurting others?