
CHINA'S AMAZING COMING OUT: AN INCOMPARABLE SPECTACLE BIG
PICS
Berliner Morgenpost, Germany
China, Russia and
the West: A Very 'Instructive Summer'
"These Olympic Games
demonstrated impressively just how deeply the West has been caught in the trap
of its own arrogance and naiveté."
By Hajo Schumacher
Translated By Ulf Behncke
August 25, 2008
Germany
- Berliner Morgenpost - Original Article (German)
The
closing ceremony, effusive praise and the flight home.
The Olympic Games
are over. Does anything remain other than the sinking feeling that none of it was
genuine - neither the young girl singing during the opening ceremonies, nor the children impersonating Tibetans, nor even some of
the athletes - who resembled mutants. Oh yes! These Games were highly
educational.
None of the
Western community's values which were promised was delivered upon. The
predominant position only four weeks ago was that the Olympic Games would bring
about an initial opening and that democracy would follow. The Games would
change this global power. Even today, Germany's Minister of the Interior
Wolfgang Schäuble claims that reforms in China are
“lasting.” In fact: China is only as opened as it was before. A transit area
was offered to the global community, in which a specially-selected service
staff celebrated the magic of a mythical Asia. Other than lifting Chinese
self-confidence, Olympia brought no easing of social conditions to that huge
empire.

[The
Telegraph, U.K.]
These Games
demonstrated impressively just how deeply the West has been caught in the trap
of its own arrogance and naiveté. In 1992, American political economist Francis
Fukuyama formulated the rather radical thesis, The End of History and the
Last Man
. It was a
barely disguised triumphant ululation proclaiming that because of the end of
the USSR, the universal values of the West would triumph around the world.
Conservatives and leftists tacitly agreed that sooner or later every country
would enter the world market and introduce human rights, as if it was
evolutionary for them to do so. There would be no economic success without
democracy, and vice versa.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
But the exact
opposite has happened. China has confidently combined economic power and a
collective society. With these Games, the Beijing leadership has impressively
shown that not only are Western values undesirable - they hardly matter at all.
[During the Opening Ceremony, acclaimed Chinese director Zhang Yimou simply explained why China's "culture of
obedience" is vastly superior to the West's.

THE TORCH IS LIT IN DRAMATIC STYLE AT THE 2008 OLYMPIAD: BIG
PICS
Above all, the
Olympics demonstrated that the world's most populous nation has a common goal.
Because what is abundantly clear, despite the deception and illusions of the
past few weeks, is that this is no developing country fighting to secure its
reputation in Washington, London or Berlin, but a huge realm fighting for
global power.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
And in these
Olympic days, yet another naive Western notion has been put to rest. The
invasion of Russian troops of Georgia illustrated that Moscow is nurturing no
inclination at all to emulate the political style or societal model of the
West. And here there's a clear theme: autocratic great power politics. Neither
an unstable E.U. nor an over-the-hill Atlantic
Alliance [NATO] is in a position to oppose the expansionism being expressed in
Moscow and to a degree in Beijing. It has been a very instructive summer.
READ ALSO
Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland
We Didn't Change China, But
Protests Were Worthwhile
http://worldmeets.us/gazetawyborcza000017.shtml
CLICK HERE FOR
GERMAN VERSION
[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US September 3, 1:58am]