China
wants to be China and accepted as such, not as an honorary member of the West.———Chapter 1: The Future of China
[China’s]
creativity may never match America’s, because its culture does not permit a
free exchange and contest of ideas.———Chapter
1: The Future of China
Chief
among these [obstacles] are… a huge country in which little emperors across a
vast expanse exercise greater local influence; cultural habits that limit imagination
and creativity, rewarding conformity; a language that shapes thinking through
epigrams and 4,000 years of texts that suggest everything worth saying has
already been said, and said better by earlier writers; a language that is
exceedingly difficult for foreigners to learn sufficiently to embrace China and
be embraced by its society…———Chapter 1:
The Future of China
To
achieve modernization of China, her Communist leaders are prepared to try all
and every method, except for democracy with one person and one vote in a
multi-party system. Their two main reasons are their belief that the Communist
Party of China must have a monopoly on power to ensure stability; and their
deep fear of instability in a multiparty free-for-all, which would lead to a
loss of control by the centre over the provinces, with horrendous consequences,
like the war lord years of 1920s and ‘30s.———Chapter 1: The Future of China
Throughout
history, all empires that succeeded have embraced and included in their midst
people of other races, languages, religions, and cultures.———Chapter 2: The Future of the United States
Entrepreneurs
and investors alike see risk and failure as natural and necessary for success.
When they fail, they pick themselves up and start afresh.———Chapter 2: The Future of the United States
I do not believe that democracy necessarily
leads to development. I believe that what a country needs to develop is
discipline more than democracy. The exuberance of democracy leads to undisciplined
and disorderly conditions which are inimical to development. The ultimate test
of the value of a political system is whether it helps that society to
establish conditions which improve the standard of living for the majority of
its people, plus enabling the maximum of personal freedoms compatible with the
freedoms of others in society.———Chapter
2: The Future of the United States