A leading chinese scholar in mainland china concluded his
analysis of the success of the western world :
One of the things we were asked to look into was what accounted
for the success.infact the pre eminence of the West all over
the world.We studied everything from the historical,political,
economic, and cultural perspective.At first, it was thought you had
more powerful guns than we had.then we thought it was you had the
best political system.Next we focused on your economic system.But
in the past twenty years, we have realised the heart of your
culture is your religion: Christianity.That is why the west is so
powerful.the christian moral foundation of social and cultural life
was what made the emergence of capitalism and then the successful
transition to democratic politics.We don't have any doubts about
this
Has the Chinese scholar considered that it was the Rulers of
China - both ancient and in the modern age - that
caused China to be more backward than the West ?
There were two books written by a retired UK Naval Rear-Admiral
Gavin Menzies, who documented the glorious days of China in his
book - ‘1421 –
The Year China Discovered the World’ - which traced
China's Admiral Cheng Ho discovery of North and South America more
then 70 years earlier before Christopher Columbus did.
The book documented Admiral Cheng Ho's successful journeys across
the globe to chart the unknown shorelines of all the land masses
around the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and created the first
maritime map of the World.
In the course of his journey, Admiral Cheng Ho established trade
routes between Africa, Middle-east, India, and South-east Asia with
China - long before the Europeans ventured out of Europe - and
spreading Chinese influence and culture across the globe.
Unlike the Europeans discoverers who travelled the globe to
colonize and impose their will on the natives, Admiral Cheng Ho
learnt about local cultures and left the native cultures intact
without colonizing them. He even became a Muslim.
In Gavin Menzies second book - “1434 : The Year a Magnificent Chinese fleet sailed
to Italy and ignited the Renaissance” - it
documented evidences of Admiral Cheng Ho's arrival to Italy,
and suggested that the Age of European Renaissance could not have
happened without the gifts of Chinese inventions of the compass,
sextant, and the scientific knowledge of astrology,
the maps showing the charted waters of the Atlantic and
Pacific, gun powder, and the Chinese canon.
It was during this European Renaissance that led the Europeans to
find new means to move out of their continents to discover the
globe, and find the errors of their ancient beliefs that the World
was flat.
Even as Admiral Cheng Ho reached the pinnacle of his success in
spreading Chinese influence across the ancient world, the
historical records showed that the remaining enuchs in the Imperial
Courts were envious of Admiral Cheng Ho's achievements.
These eunuchs ignited court intrigues and persuaded the Emperor to
be more circumspect of Admiral Cheng Ho's growing influence in the
Imperial Court; and they encouraged the Emperor to halt all further
overseas adventures.
This led to the dissolution of the Imperial Fleet commanded by
Admiral Cheng Ho, and the sudden insular looking policies of China
that remained until the arrival of the Western traders to force the
opening of China, and began to carve up territorial rights amongst
themselves.
The destructive intrigues and rival schemes to seize power within
the Imperial Court had brought China further backward, when the
Empress Dowager prevented a strong succession lineage of Emperors
to effectively rule China. The Empress Dowager was herself out of
her own league without any experience nor the means to deal with
the "foreign devil invasion" of China - that even involved
Japan.
In more recent 20th Century history of China, the leadership crisis
in China continued to give opportunity for the various Western and
Japanese Colonialist to hold on to their claims in China.
The rivalries and court intrigues aborted Sun Yat Sen's efforts to
modernize China, and resulted in Marshal Yuan Shi Kai usurping of
power, which restored the ancient rule from the Imperial Palace.
With the weak Imperial Rule, it largely gave a free hand to the
existence of regional power centers of "tin pot" Generals and their
private armies that launched incessant power struggles amongst
themselves.
This continued to weaken China and allowed Japan to sweep in from
Manchuria to gain more influence and later to attempt to takeover
all China.
Even after the War, for almost 50 years, the Communist Party of
China - under the leadership of Mao Tse Tung - could not advance
China forward to its past glory.
His erratic and sudden switch in political thinking that launched
the Cultural Revolution, had resulted in mass destruction of the
rich historical archives of scientific knowledge, culture, and
priceless artifacts; and led to the persecution and death of
thousands of scientists, intellectuals, engineers and the educated
few.
This was the common feature in China's history - of
self-destruction, intrigues, rivalries - that led to her inability
to match the progress in the "Western World".
It was not until Deng Xiao Peng's regaining of his political
position in the late 1960s - after the death of his compatriots in
the first generation of Communist Leadership and the persecution of
the schemers in the Gang of Four led by Mao's wife - that gave him
a free hand to open China to the World.
Deng Xiao Peng's analogy that "there is no difference between a
Black or White Cat, as long as it catches the mouse" - allowed
China to free their self-imposed mental straight jacket imposed by
dogmatic Communist thinking and Marxist economic theories.
Could the Christian Religion be the reason for the success in the
West and not its Institutionalized Political Forms and Structures
that allowed the West an organized and clear path in their
Political Transitions through the centuries ?
Following the small progress made by Deng Xiao Peng's call, if
China had not begun a self-critical study of the shortcomings in
their political idealism that hampered economic growth,
restructured their legal systems, introduced new legislations to
govern the huge populations in a vast land mass - could China
regain her eminence today as the World's richest nation ?
If Christianity had been the engine of growth for the Western
World, it did not stop the greed that led to the present day
destruction of the Financial System of the World's leading Western
Powers - whose political and industrial leadership has
consistently been faithful Christians.
If the US Political System did not exist, would Barack Obama have
the opportunity to showcase his ability to galvanize the US
citizens from across the many political divides that exist in the
US ?
This article from the Chinese Scholar will probably give LKY's
"pace maker" a heart stopping shock - as it will puncture his long
held belief in the supremacy of China's Confucian Ethics in
providing a political model for good governance.
Ironically, LKY's adoption of Confucianism is a ploy to perpetuate
his own legitimacy, as his adoption of Confucian Ethics is
selective and self-serving.
Can Religion determine the success of any Nation ?
Should it not be the existence of a Transparent Political
System that will provide the foundation for an
Institutionalised and Principled Way forward to look after the
interest of People coming together to form a Community and a Nation
?
For all the inherent weakness in the USA, it still manages to throw
up a leader in Barack Obama that is embraced and supported by
people from across a broad spectrum of political principles in this
time of troubles.
Can the fractious population in China come together and freely
determine for themselves - to find a leader whom they can
support without the choice being made by a small select group
and then imposed on them ?
From the very first paragraph, this article is no more then a
self-serving Christian propaganda to justify its continued
existence in the 21st Century.
