Western complacency frames China as merely catching up, causing persistent underestimation of its rise by assuming it must follow or fail by Western norms.
I. The 2025 Nobel Prizes: Politics and Geopolitical Significance 1.1 Literature Prize: László Krasnohorkai and the Politics of Recognition The 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Hungarian writer László Krasnohorkai, a prominent voice from post-Cold War Eastern Europe. This selection underscores the West’s continued focus on regions marked by historical trauma, war, and … Read more
I. ALICE as Structural Fragility — From Household to Empire 1. What ALICE Truly Signifies: Structural Fragility Above the Poverty Line ALICE—Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed—does not merely describe poverty. It captures a more unsettling condition: households that are working, earning above the official poverty threshold, and yet unable to achieve financial stability. These are … Read more
1. A World in Transition: Language, Safety, and the Anxiety of Prediction In an era marked by global instability, anxiety about safety and the future has taken on new dimensions. In October 2023, Canadian professor Gad Saad posted a provocative message on X, urging Jews worldwide to consider learning Cantonese or Mandarin, suggesting China might … Read more
“Central bank independence” is widely treated as a neutral, rational, and universally valid institutional principle. In reality, it is a historically contingent governance choice, born out of a specific crisis in the 1970s, closely aligned with neoliberal ideology, and disproportionately attentive to financial stability over real economic development. Empirical history does not show a linear … Read more
Zbigniew Brzezinski’s 1997 book, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives, argued that the United States must strategically manage the Eurasian continent—the “grand chessboard”—to preserve its global dominance. In it, Brzezinski outlined a detailed plan for U.S. hegemony, emphasizing the control of key regions, the prevention of rival coalitions, and the careful balancing … Read more
Why the West Cannot Decide What China Is The West’s long-standing effort to reshape China reflects a basic misreading of China’s developmental trajectory and reform logic. For decades, Western policymakers, academics, and elites have viewed China not as a civilizational peer pursuing its own path, but as an incomplete or delayed version of the West—one … Read more
Throughout history, human societies have relied on myths, narratives, and symbolic stories to build shared beliefs, inspire ambitions, and explain historical events. These stories often simplify complex realities, overstate the contributions of individuals or nations, and overlook structural, social, or economic factors. What matters in these myths is not always their factual accuracy, but the … Read more
Britain’s industrialization occurred well before the advent of full democracy, a historical pattern with significant implications for today’s developing countries—especially China—and one that closely echoes Lee Kuan Yew’s economic-first approach to nation-building. Drawing on insights from Yi Wen (The Making of an Economic Superpower, 2016) and Ha-Joon Chang (Bad Samaritans, 2007; Kicking Away the Ladder, … Read more
The lack of a Marshall-style reconstruction program for China after World War II was neither accidental nor simply the result of Kuomintang (KMT) corruption or administrative failure. Rather, it reflected deliberate strategic choices shaped by U.S. priorities, racialized perceptions, fears of Chinese nationalism, and the short-term logic that guided early Cold War policymaking. From Washington’s … Read more
Introduction: From World Factory to Technology Exporter Over the last forty years, China’s position in the global automotive industry has experienced a profound transformation. Once primarily a recipient of foreign technology in exchange for market access, China has emerged as the world’s leading hub for new energy vehicle (NEV) innovation. Today, it exports not only … Read more