Our relationship with China is a complicated issue and one that certainly deserves debate.

I recently spent a week in an executive education session in which three senior Chinese businesspeople participated. They were very bright, thoughtful and willing to discuss their view of China’s goals and role in the world. I learned a lot.

We make much of the presumption we live in a free society and they do not. Their rebuttal is interesting: they have freedom of movement, can travel in and out of the country as they see fit, can own assets outside China—essentially, they enjoy virtually anything we in the democratic world can and do. The exceptions, of course, are freedom of speech, dissent and the right to vote.

The only “voters” in China are members of the Communist Party. But these people are all very well educated and have an intimate understanding of the policies of the leadership up for election. All of the candidates, in turn, have been thoroughly trained and prepared for their responsibility. Compare that to those who we attract to run for office in western society.  Their system had checks and balances which seemed to work fine until President Xi arrived on the scene and decided he wanted to remain in office for as long as he so desired. That clearly is an affront to the competitiveness of their ideology compared to ours.

 

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