He has a memo to the Chinese leader:
MEMO to: China’s President Xi Jinping.
From: A Friend of Your Country.
Dear President Xi, in recent years there’s been a tug of war inside the global investment community between those who think China is a bubble about to burst and therefore a “screaming short” and those who believe that China has big problems — but also big tools and smart leaders — and will find a way forward, even if at a more normal growth rate. I lean toward the second camp, but looking at some of China’s recent behavior I’m beginning to wonder: Maybe your system is more frail than I thought?
I say that as someone who wants to see China succeed in empowering its people to realize their full potential so they can better participate in shaping China’s future and integrate with the world. Anyone who is telling you that American policy makers want to see China fail doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Our two economies and fates are totally intertwined today.
Thomas Friedman's autocrat crush on China is both embarrassing and really off the mark.
He's had his autocrat crush for a long time, it seems.
One, the Chinese won't take his advice. This is Tom Friedman, after all. I'm not saying you couldn't drown in a pool of his wisdom. But you would have to be drunk and face down to do so.
Second, Tom has no idea what Xi is trying to achieve.
Let me clue Friedman in, here. Xi is not important because he is president of China. He is important because he is in charge of the Chinese Communist Party. The presidency is just a shiny bauble to make sure he gets invited to the right parties in the international community based on states. Tom should understand that.
More important, Tom mistakes the fate of China with the fate of the Chinese Communist Party.
The preservation of the party is all that matters. The defense of the Chinese state is just a means for that end.
So Friedman doesn't understand the power structure.
Third, in what world would the Chinese ruler take advice from a "friend" who "wants to see China succeed in empowering its people to realize their full potential so they can better participate in shaping China's future ..."
Um, hello? Chinese Communist Party? Vanguard of the people? The party voices the broad concerns of the Chinese people, thus already empowering them to realize their full potential under party guidance? Got it? That's how they roll.
Tom is spouting reactionary and possibly splittist tendencies, as far as Xi is concerned. So he won't take Tom's advice. If only our rulers were as reasonably enlightened.
I didn't actually read anything in the column after the quoted portions that began the memo. I feared I'd pluck my eyes from my skull rather than let that impression remain on the retinas.
