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When I went to college in the United States two decades ago, I had no telephone and no television set -- by choice. While I’m a Blackberry addict now, I have yet to convince myself of the necessity of watching arguably the most popular form of entertainment ever again.
To Learn: "The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders Explain Away Chinese Repression" by James Mann (Viking, 2007, 127 pages). As a long-time student of U.S. policies and attitudes towards China, I am always amazed at one enduring element I call "the China Exception." Presidents can come and go, Congress can be led by either the Democrats or the Republicans, but China has always been viewed with a special eye by Americans. The Chinese are allowed to live in a parallel universe where ordinary rules and standards simply don't apply. The author of this book dispels the two mainstream notions of China's future -- the Soothing Scenario in which economic freedoms will bring political ones and the Upheaval Scenario in which the contradiction between a market economy and Leninist politics is not sustainable -- and contends a more likely third scenario in which capitalism continues to evolve but the government fails to liberalize. In other words, China's dictatorship is here to stay. I love the book and agree with the author very much. That he was able to spell out his case in such a slim volume is impressive.
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