"Dictatorship, autocracy, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, communism… these concepts are repeatedly appearing in Western media and experts' articles about China.

There are no new words or concepts to depict China. This phenomenon profoundly shows that Western intellectual circles are now devoid of concepts to understand China. The lack of concepts means that ideas are exhausted.

What does the "idea" refer to? It means a new thought to understand national development in the new era of globalization, world's development and the rise of great powers. We are unable to find such an analytical framework from the existing Western theoretical system.

The Western intellectual circles have their heads spinning when facing the rise of China, an Eastern great country that is totally different from its Western counterparts. They only turn to some old concepts in the existing theories. They even absurdly apply them to analyze China. It's like they are using a wrong basic equation to calculate a difficult problem. How can they find the correct answer in this case? "

Many Chinese are wondering why Western intellectuals cannot see China as it is.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202110/1237438.shtml

On Sunday, October 31, 2021 at 12:23:05 PM UTC, ltlee1 wrote:
> "Dictatorship, autocracy, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, communism… these concepts are repeatedly appearing in Western media and experts' articles about China.
>
> There are no new words or concepts to depict China. This phenomenon profoundly shows that Western intellectual circles are now devoid of concepts to understand China. The lack of concepts means that ideas are exhausted.
>
> What does the "idea" refer to? It means a new thought to understand national development in the new era of globalization, world's development and the rise of great powers. We are unable to find such an analytical framework from the existing Western theoretical system.
>
> The Western intellectual circles have their heads spinning when facing the rise of China, an Eastern great country that is totally different from its Western counterparts. They only turn to some old concepts in the existing theories. They even absurdly apply them to analyze China. It's like they are using a wrong basic equation to calculate a difficult problem. How can they find the correct answer in this case? "
>
> Many Chinese are wondering why Western intellectuals cannot see China as it is.
>
> https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202110/1237438.shtml

1) It is funny that Western intellectual circles believe that Chinese people are suppressed. They have no free speech,
and they are not allowed to participate politically. Can China really achieve great results for several decades without
continuous communicating between the government and the people on how to best govern the country?
Weak minds is one way to put it. If they really believe China is "Making chariot behind close door", they are also secret
admirers of the Chinese government. A country of 1.4 billion can be governed without people's input. What a miracle?

The truth: To be an elite in the West often means he or she has to repeat what other elites think and write. Intellectual
circles are often the blind are leading the blind regarding China. And the misunderstanding spread top-down into the
average Americans.

2) On Chinese democracy, Mao mass line approach through incessant back and forth communications has proven its
effectiveness in delivering democratic results.

"In all the practical work of our Party, all correct leadership is necessarily "from the masses, to
the masses". This means: take the ideas of the masses (scattered and unsystematic ideas) and concentrate them
(through study turn them into concentrated and systematic ideas), then go to the masses and propagate and explain
these ideas until the masses embrace them as their own, hold fast to them and translate them into action, and test the
correctness of these ideas in such action. Then once again concentrate ideas from the masses and once again go to
the masses so that the ideas are persevered in and carried through. And so on, over and over again in an endless spiral,
with the ideas becoming more correct, more vital and richer each time. Such is the Marxist theory of knowledge."

3) Western elites would be in a better position to understand Chinese democracy if they familiarize themselves with Joseph
A. Schumpeter's "Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy."