China scholars warn of growing national arrogance
The scholars said economic confidence was serving as a foundation for arroganceChina's confidence in its economic development is turning into "national arrogance", according to a group of Chinese scholars.
In a set of articles published in a state newspaper, they said that China might have lost its traditional virtue of being modest and become intolerant.
And they questioned whether the world was misreading China or whether China itself was to blame.
The cause lay in a refusal to accept some universal values, they said.
'Contaminated'China is definitely changing. It is now the world's second largest economy after the United States. It has the biggest foreign exchange reserve - about $2.5 trillion (£1.6tn).
And it is seen by the rest of the world as being more assertive, whether with regard to climate change or disputed claims in the South China Sea.
There has been a clear surge of nationalism inside the country. The ancient Chinese tradition of keeping a low profile seems to have been abandoned.
In the group of articles published by the International Herald Leader, a newspaper affiliated to the state news agency Xinhua, the four authors say aggressive and belligerent voices fill the nation's media and intoxicate popular thinking.
One of them, Mr Ye Hailin, says: "The huge achievement made during 30 years of reform and opening-up has brought about unprecedented material wealth for the nation.
"At the same time, it's inevitably contaminated us with unprecedented conceit and arrogance."
In a materialistic society, the authors say, the nation has lost its soul. The root cause, they say, lies in China's self-claimed uniqueness.
Another of the authors, Yang Rui - a presenter on China Central Television's English channel, CCTV 9 - earlier this year wrote a book entitled Who Is Misreading China?.
He argues: "The outside world would doubt our system even more if we harped on about the unique situation in China in defence of our values, which are not universally applicable."
The unorthodox but more balanced comments are particularly remarkable against the backdrop of China's strong reaction to the changes in the US strategy in East Asia.
In recent weeks, a barrage of verbal attacks were followed by naval exercises by the Chinese fleet in the South China Sea.
The international community will now watch the debate closely, to see whether it will lead to any changes in China's behaviour on the world stage.
THE LESSON:
וְאָמַרְתָּ בִּלְבָבֶךָ: 'כּחִי וְעצֶם יָדִי עָשָׂה לִי אֶת הַחַיִל הַזֶּה'. וְזָכַרְתָּ אֶת ה' אֱלֹהֶיךָ, כִּי הוּא הַנּתֵן לְךָ כֹּחַ לַעֲשׂוֹת חָיִל, לְמַעַן הָקִים אֶת בְּרִיתוֹ אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע לַאֲבֹתֶיךָ כַּיּוֹם הַזֶּה".
While this Passuk from Devarim refers to war, its applicability has been widely used in Mussar as a curb against arrogance.
Lately, I have been meeting people from different walks of life that attribute every success in life to their own greatness and ability. What's worse, is that with this arrogance comes the by-product of looking down on others and treating others as inferiors in word and deed. This is a disease that I see a lot with top executives and anyone in command.
Meet someone out of their enviroment and they can be almost human; at times even charming. Put them in command or stick a dollar bill in front of their face and they metamorphisize into this beast that knows no boundaries of conduct. Between man and G-d they seem almost perfect (so frum looking in Shule), between man and man...not so good.
As a nation, we have a serious arrogance problem. We have started to believe our own press about how smart we are. The Israeli "Mankal (CEO) Syndrome" has infected our leaders in both Israel and the Diaspora.
The first step in "rehab" is recognizing that you have a problem. The Chinese have recognized it. But, we have to go further in our national Teshuva. We must announce the problem and sincerely accept that we will not do it again. Do we have the individual and national will?
Well, it's Elul and how we act towards others is number 1 on the Teshuva hit parade. Let's hope we can all change for the better.
דע לפני מי אתה עומד
SHABBAT SHALOM
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