"If You Want To Understand China" (4)
What Is It About China ?
A number of associates and board members from the Transnational Foundation of Peace and Future Research (TFF) have decided to prepare and launch an anthology of articles in this time to provide a broader understanding of China.
In the fourth article, Thore Vestby discusses how people and institutions in the West and China approach problems. There are problems worldwide – small and big, in every family, in every country, and so too in China. One main difference in addressing them is that the West focuses on the problems while the Chinese focus on the possibilities, the solutions, and the future.
He also challenges the simplistic narrative of China's rise and the West's decline as a black-and-white dichotomy. Instead, he argues that this is not a zero-sum game—the cake could be baked larger for everyone to benefit. He attributes the West’s decline and China’s rise to a fundamental difference: China has a Project while, in contrast, the West is split and does not have a collective Project.
Read whole article in the TFF website.
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Previous articles from the anthology “If You Want To Understand China” :
"If You Want To Understand China" (3)
Complementarity is Possible: Chinese and Western ways of thinking. But does the West want it ?
"If You Want To Understand China" (1)
Echoes Of Volatile And Delusive Memory: Challenging Historical Interpretations
"If You Want To Understand China" (intro)
A number of associates and board members from the Transnational Foundation of Peace and Future Research (TFF) have decided to prepare and launch an anthology of articles in coming months to provide a broader understanding of China.
February 15, 2025
Authors “If You Want To Understand China”
Jan Oberg • Peter Peverelli • Thore Vestby • Yuewei Wang • Johan Galtung • Gordon Dumoulin