Tuesday, February 14, 2012

US China groupies

GuamDiary highly recommends the reading of Perry Anderson's 'China under western eyes' in the 9 February 2012 issue of the 'London Review of Books'.
Anderson rips into the obsequious flattery of Ezra Vogel's 'Deng Xiao Ping and the transformation of China' and Herr Kissinger's 'On China'.
Two doorstop books long on bootlicking and short on critical analysis.
Vogel and Herr Kissinger are poster boys for authoritarian figures. One is professor emeritus of sociology at Harvard, the other once taught there but went on to have a checkered and controversial career in government and now is a paid hack of the Chinese government. The two once sat on the National Security Council, and took up the cause of propping up brutal dictators.
Anderson doesn't let either one off the hook for political shortsightedness though spare them the harsh damnation they deserve.

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