SPIS TREŚCI

TABLE OF CONTENTS

WSTĘP

INTRODUCTION

Zapis wystąpień prelegentów podczas debaty zorganizowanej przez Bibliotekę Publiczną m.st. Warszawy oraz Katedrę Studiów Azjatyckich Uniwersytetu SWPS 29 stycznia 2015 r.

Uczestnicy debaty:

• Małgorzata Religa
• Lidia Kasarełło
• Ksawery Burski

The teachings of Confucius – as a tradition of social ethics – have exerted a profound (and continuing) infl uence on China (and East Asia) for more than 2000 years. This paper will look closer into this tradition by focusing less on the ethical and more on the political role of Confucianism. As will be shown, though, the two cannot be neatly divided but form an inseparable whole respective of personal and social ethics with political relevance. Thus, in the following, Confucianism will be discussed as a tradition of political thought, first regarding its major autochthonous concepts, such as “people-based thought”, “humane rule”, “harmony” or “the world shared by all alike”, second and third, in relationship to Marxism and democracy. In this final section, Michael Sandel’s book: Democracy’s Discontent will serve as a point of comparison for Chinese prerogatives in politics.

Some methodological difficulties in studying and analysing China

The study presents various factors which obstacles adequate description and analysis of Chinese realities in Western scholarly literature. The first factor presented in the article is the psychological mechanism of a “mirror”. As Lynn T. White suggested, since the 17th century, that Westerners look at China not through a ‘window’ but through a ‘mirror’, in which their own fears or most treasured ideals are refl ected, not China itself. Hence their descriptions of China refl ect first of all their state of mind. Peter Hays Gries and Stanley Rosen add to this metaphor another one, that of a procrustean bed. According to these authors, contemporary Western scholars procede like ancient Procrustes who made his captives fit his bed cutting their too long limbs or stretching these too short, in order to adapt Chinese realities to the Western schemes. Sebastian Heilmann and Matthias Stepan in order to explain Western mistaken views of China and expectations presented six wrong assumptions concerning developments in China. Their list is controversial, but it is true that on the Western side there are numerous wrong assumptions concerning China and other Asian states. Thus the Chinese realities are described in a wrong way, and the predictions of future developments are also false.
The Author put an emphasis on scientific categories and terms elaborated in Europe and the States and considered “universal”, which, however, are not adequate to the Chinese realities. Hence their use results in falsification of descriptions and makes previsions based on them – groundless. He distinguishes two essential kinds of categories and terms borrowed from the West but inadequate to the Chinese realities. The first constitutes the terms which significance does not fit to the Chinese realities, as “language”, “religion”, historical epochs such as “antiquity”, “,Middle Ages”, etc. The second constitutes the terms which meanings involve cultural values. Many of them are difficult to translate into Chinese and they acquire different meanings in the context of Confucian heritage. The Author analyses from this perspective: “human rights”, “democracy” and “freedom”.
Western scholars are also often mislead by Chinese sources. The study indicates another factor, which facilitates great misunderstandings. According to the cultural norm of the Confucian civilisation there is a “proper façade” presented in public, behind which there are hidden “internal realities”. Of course, such differences could be detected in each culture, but in highly ritualistic Confucian civilisation this distinction is essential, and both parts constitute “complex realities”, whereas Westerners presume that the façade constitutes a whole and complete reality. The Author presents as an example centralised, unitary Leninist state in Chin that is – in his opinion merely a false “public image”, whereas in reality there operate more or less innumerable quite autonomous units, which in fact are not subordinate. Under such circumstances all decisions must be consulted and negotiated among them, like in a federal system, although it does not operate formally. The Westerners also misleads themselves considering their peculiar civilisation as “universal”, whereas there are various civilisations, which will not amalgamate during the modernisation processes. Hence various societies function and change in their own ways, different from the western schemes and expectations.
The study indicates that the West still predominates and presents its civilisation as universal. However, its predomination faces growing resistance and numerous scholars recognise the existence of numerous civilisations, which will also develop in the future. The author enumerates the most significant concepts such as “dialogue among civilisations and cultures” adopted by the United Nations in 1989, Huntington’s warning against imposing western norms on other civilisations, which may result in their ‘clashes’, the concept of the Axial Age, of Multiple Modernities, and so on. The road to an equal status of all civilisations is long and tortuous. The elaboration of universal scientific categories and principles is even more difficult, and it is, perhaps, a task for future generations of Asian scholars.

Transformation of the Chinese family in the legal aspect: towards individualism or familism?

In this paper, I investigate the change in the term of a family in the context of modern Chinese family law, with a consideration of its historical- cultural context. The article concludes that the changes in family law in the recent four decades presents both a individualization tendency and familistic tendency. However, the two tendencies appear in laws and regulations concerned with different family relationships. Between the spouses, an obvious individualization inclination was gradually introduced. Whereas, facing a social reality of aging society and highly mobile life style, which causes providing for elders more difficult than before, the law intends to support intergenerational ties, and in this way promote a familistic outlook.

China has played an important role in global economy, and after decades of rapid economic growth, China is in the way of changing economic development path and model. A slow recovery is the tendency of the near future global economy, the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century. Adjustment will certainly be the theme for an extended period in the future. The coexistence of competition and cooperation will be the mainstream of the future world, and trade friction will be the new norm for the global economy. China will insist on deepening reform and open to the rest of the world, adjusting the pattern and path of the growth in order to get sustainable development and search for win – win future with the rest of the world.

The rivalry between the United States and China in the Southeast Asia in 2017 and 2018.

The rivalry of great powers between the United States and China embraces all regions of East Asia, including Southeast Asia and the South China Sea. The situation changed and became even more dynamic at the beginning of 2017, with the arrival of Donald Trump, the new American President. Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Trans Pacific Partnership had a significant influence on the situation in Southeast Asia and started a trade war with China as well as a race in the field of new technologies. The Trump Administration also introduced a new strategy of “free and open Indo – Pacific” which shared some basic strategic similarities with its predecessor – the Pivot. Washington has labeled China a strategic rival and a military threat. The American activities are strongly supported by Japan. The Japanese prime minister Shinzō Abe considers supporting Trump’s policy of trade war and general confrontation with China is in Japanese national interest. China was surprised by the evolution of American policy and its reaction was rather defensive. The Chinese president Xi Jinping suspects that the US’s real goal is to prevent China from rising or projecting power and influence abroad, especially in Southeast Asia and South China Sea. However China’s leadership has firmly decided to oppose the American administration policy, particularly in the above mentioned region.
The countries of the region of Southeast Asia started to be severely challenged by China but also by the United States and Japan, especially in the South Chinese Sea. The majority of these countries are likely to continue the “hedge” policy.

The concept of Indo-Pacific as the attempt of balancing China. The changes in the American perception of the security environment

The change in the name of the US Pacific Command to the US Indo-Pacific Command, which took place on May 30th , 2018, most clearly shows how the American perception of the security of the region is changing. Trump’s Indo-Pacific concept has replaced B. Obama’s Pivot concept in Asia. Seeing China as a strategic rival and a revisionist power, which has been mentioned in the national security strategy and the national defense strategy, the United States is trying to limit Chinas influence by strengthening formally existing alliances and ties with so-called strategic partners. The following article is an attempt to analyze the military dimension of the emerging need for the US to treat the Indo-Pacific as a unified operational theater, particularly in the context of the deteriorating security situation in the South China Sea and the ongoing Chinese militarization of the region.

Central Asian Civilisation

The paper presents a general overview of relations between sections of the region’s population in historical perspective starting from the Bronze Age. The history of Central Asia has been in essence the constant great migration of ideas following the exchange of populace and goods. It is seen as a network of cultural, trade and political exchanges constituting its specific civilisation based on parallel relations that balance partners’ worthiness according to their merit, achievements, usefulness, creative endeavour, and political influence. Imperial neighbours of the region who had not respected cultural parity in variety were at loss in building mutual relationships.

Wystąpienie podczas debaty zorganizowanej przez Bibliotekę Publiczną m.st. Warszawy oraz Katedrę Studiów Azjatyckich Uniwersytetu SWPS 28 marca 2019 r.