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)

President Bush and Chinese leader Hu Jintao meet before a welcoming banquet at the Great Hall of People, Aug 8.

 

BBC VIDEO: On Eve of Olympic
Opening, Bush strongly criticizes China on its human rights record, August 7, 00:06:47.
RealVideo

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]