Pei on Asia's Rise
Thursday, July 16, 2009 at 12:22AM THINK AGAIN: "Asia's Rise," by Minxin Pei, Foreign Policy, July/August 2009.
Honestly, the Think Again column, along with the Failed State Index, are the two best things FP puts out.
This piece is a great example. Pei, an old friend from Harvard, is an intense skeptic on the whole supremacy of China and Asia argument, and he dissects it well here.
The basic logic will seem familiar: Asia has mastered a lot of extensive growth (more resources) with its current structures, but that says nothing about its ability to master intensive growth; Asian unity is non-existent; the "much-touted Asian model of development does not seem to be an exportable product"; China is looking at a long period of internal instability as it evolves; the innovation gap is a myth, as only a fraction of Indian and Chinese engineers are employable by our standards; autocracies possess no advantages when it comes to intensive growth, only deficits; and America's influence in the region is not waning--at least not in the eyes of Asians.
Best line is a total keeper: "Dictatorships are good at concealing the problems they create while democracy is good at advertising its defects."
In a nutshell, that describes most of our ill-placed angst.
(Thanks: jdongweck)
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