People’s democracy in China

The false discourse of Chinese authoritarianism

     Many years ago, in the context of the awakening of consciousness in the United States from 1966 to 1972, stimulated by the black power movement and the student anti-war movement, I became aware that perceptions of truth and right are shaped by social and cultural context.  Investigating the philosophical implications of this fact, I ultimately arrived to understand that understandings that transcend one’s social starting point can be attained through sustained cross-horizon encounter or cross-civilizational dialogue, in which commitment to truth is the highest desire.  In the practice of this epistemological method, I came to appreciate that one must begin by seeking to understand how people of other horizons and civilizations define themselves; and only on this foundation can the intellectual and moral defects of the other be criticized.

     The emergence of China as a world power has provoked debate and commentary in the United States, which often has included an unsubstantiate…