China--a non-nationalist perspective

Gunnar Hökmark » Arkiv » Kina är en del av den nya tidens utmaningar: "Men utmaningen är större än så. De ideér och den politik som präglar det kinesiska samhället, med sin syn på den enskilde, demokratin och det öppna samhället får inte underminera våra värden, däremot måste vi se till att demokratin med respekten för den enskilde kan omfattas av fler i världens diktaturer."

Johan Norberg also points out that it is dangerous to succumb to China's power. Thomas Friedman's article as well as Fareed Zakaria's Chinophilia probably translates to the care of a large potential market for their respective papers, The New York Times and Newsweek.

I guess it boils down to which school of thought you adhere to rather than to which seems to become largest and most powerful. It is a matter of daring to stay with your moral compass.

Hökmark suggests that it would be possible to change people's minds in dictatorships. I'm not so sure. We have the experience of the imploding Soviet Union. People changed for a while but now they are back in defiance of Western values. The way people are organized these days probably makes it impossible to create revolutionary nuclei.

Hökmark further discusses what would generate security for the people now in a world of changed power arrangements. I believe that it is good to try to remember to which contingency you belong. The EU and the US belongs together. More similarities than differences. The good thing with a Democratic president is that the trans-Atlantic relationship is clearly improving. The Chinese and Japanese cultures, both competing for the number two position economically, are very different and does not create the same potential for security. There should not be any problems in the foreseeable future securing our values working closely with the US.

Something I feel increasingly is that we should not spend so much time fighting fundamentalist Islam, when the challenge is elsewhere in Asia. Not only do we loose good faith among the countries in the world we also loose money. The first is probably more serious. People in the world are going to use moral environmental arguments against us because they don't give us credit for generating modern science and technology. We do not need to seem belligerent at the same time.

A small country like Sweden might feel lonely, especially with the old neutrality perspective. However, however our civilization is very strong and enduring and the EU and the US together will continue to lead and prosper.