Looking around the world, remarkable achievements in a unique sense can be found whenever fortuitous circumstances brought together collaborations between the Chinese and the WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant). Eminent examples are Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Sydney, Vancouver and San Francisco, and pockets of Chinatowns in major WASP cities.
Premier Zhu of China once said at the turn of the 21st Century, when you see how successful Chinese people have been in Singapore and Taiwan, and indeed the USA it would be ironic if they could not be successful in their own country. I see in this recognition of Zhu, the incredible productive chemistry that can blossom when innate Chinese talents operate in a WASP's values environment and other infrastructures.
China is painfully aware of the adjustments it has to make to its values system and infrastructures before the country can fully take off. These adjustments have to be made wisely and gradually to preserve the stability of such a hugely populated and diverse country. It obviously does not want to experience the break-up that Russia suffered in pursuing its adjustments too ambitiously.
The most remarkable Chinese/WASP collaboration on the cuurent world stage can be pinned on the status of Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China. The focus is on Hong Kong in this discussion as Macau merely replicated the terms when its turn to return sovereignity to China fell due after Hong Kong's.
When Hong Kong's lease to the British as a concession of the Opium Wars was nearing expiration in 1997, there was great anxiety amongst the residents of Hong Kong as to their future. The well to do residents were squirreling their wealth to safer havens not only in the form of investments but in standby abodes as well in case they had to flee at short notice. This may sound paranoid now, but back then it was commonsense precaution. This reflected on the mood based on the perception of reality of those times or perhaps on the success of Western propaganda weaved around a Communist Ogre.
The annexation of Hong Kong and other concessionaires throughout China by various Western Powers after the Opium Wars was a great humiliation for China. It was therefore expected that when these territories were returned, some form of retribution would take place against those who had amassed their fortunes and favoured positions through selling out their support and loyalty to the foreign powers.
The wondrous beauty in this Hong Kong SAR arrangement is the collaboration of parties who were once bitter enemies, but in respecting the expediencies of the times, they were able to work out compromises that were quite honourable under the circumstances of the parties' differing cultures and priorities.
This says a great deal of the tremendously bright possibilities that can benefit the entire world when two major civiilizations can cooperate in this way, setting aside their belligerent past and bruised pride for the betterment of the future.
There is definitely something special and uplifting in Chinese/WASP collaborations around the world and I hope the discourse on this subject will always be enthusiastically pursued and we can contribute our share here.
Premier Zhu of China once said at the turn of the 21st Century, when you see how successful Chinese people have been in Singapore and Taiwan, and indeed the USA it would be ironic if they could not be successful in their own country. I see in this recognition of Zhu, the incredible productive chemistry that can blossom when innate Chinese talents operate in a WASP's values environment and other infrastructures.
China is painfully aware of the adjustments it has to make to its values system and infrastructures before the country can fully take off. These adjustments have to be made wisely and gradually to preserve the stability of such a hugely populated and diverse country. It obviously does not want to experience the break-up that Russia suffered in pursuing its adjustments too ambitiously.
The most remarkable Chinese/WASP collaboration on the cuurent world stage can be pinned on the status of Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China. The focus is on Hong Kong in this discussion as Macau merely replicated the terms when its turn to return sovereignity to China fell due after Hong Kong's.
When Hong Kong's lease to the British as a concession of the Opium Wars was nearing expiration in 1997, there was great anxiety amongst the residents of Hong Kong as to their future. The well to do residents were squirreling their wealth to safer havens not only in the form of investments but in standby abodes as well in case they had to flee at short notice. This may sound paranoid now, but back then it was commonsense precaution. This reflected on the mood based on the perception of reality of those times or perhaps on the success of Western propaganda weaved around a Communist Ogre.
The annexation of Hong Kong and other concessionaires throughout China by various Western Powers after the Opium Wars was a great humiliation for China. It was therefore expected that when these territories were returned, some form of retribution would take place against those who had amassed their fortunes and favoured positions through selling out their support and loyalty to the foreign powers.
The wondrous beauty in this Hong Kong SAR arrangement is the collaboration of parties who were once bitter enemies, but in respecting the expediencies of the times, they were able to work out compromises that were quite honourable under the circumstances of the parties' differing cultures and priorities.
This says a great deal of the tremendously bright possibilities that can benefit the entire world when two major civiilizations can cooperate in this way, setting aside their belligerent past and bruised pride for the betterment of the future.
There is definitely something special and uplifting in Chinese/WASP collaborations around the world and I hope the discourse on this subject will always be enthusiastically pursued and we can contribute our share here.
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