Been piqued by the question ,what will happen in the post pandemic world?so i dug out Fareed Zakarias book 10 lessons for a post pandemic world,China wakes,the struggle for the soul of a rising power and China after Deng Xiao Ping.
A quote in the book China after Deng Xiao Ping recalls how ideas cant be imprisoned especially ideas whose time has come."A revolution is a state of mind.its power doesnt lie in the most advanced artillery or the largest land mass or the central bank reserves."
One of the most charismatic Chinese helmsmen who steered China to economic might was Deng Xiao Pings socialism with Chinese characteristics.The other ethnic Chinese helmsman with bold visionary plans for his nation was the late Lee Kwan Yew.
My insatiable curiosity is aroused when the Chinese government wants to reduce the teaching time for English nationwide as its growing distrust of the Western powers agenda to spread its ideology to the young people of China with aim to initiate regime change as it tried to do in other parts of the world from Central America,Cuba ,Vietnam,Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
But what is not to be forgotten is when China under the thousands of years of imperial dynastic rule caused it to be insular and close minded and such was the cause of the downfall of a system that oppressed its people and caused widespread poverty,famine and weakened its economy and military until the opium wars was the nail in the coffin that completed foreign occupation of its cities and territories into foreign enclaves.
So what did the founding fathers of modern day China turn to lay the foundation of a progressive nation.They adopted the western ideas of MarxismLeninism.,restructured the society from the bottom up and used education,science and technology to open up the nation.let it be reminded that ZhouEn Lai went to study in France and so did a young Deng Xiao Ping and they were more revolutionary nationalists who wanted to save China more than they were intent on ideological warfare.
The night before his departure, Deng's father took his son aside and asked him what he hoped to learn in France. He repeated the words he had learned from his teachers: "To learn knowledge and truth from the West in order to save China." Deng was aware that China was suffering greatly, and that the Chinese people must have a modern education to save their country.[21]
So I dont feel limiting the young people of China from learning English is going to make them more patriotic but its the lifting the standard of living and eradicating hard core poverty and creation of a common prosperity for the middle class that will revive the nationalistic pride of its young people.
In the post pandemic world,China may work out to be a more environmentally sustainable nation compared to western nations.The refocus on solar and hydro power,the use of efficient public transport,the widespread adoption of electric vehicles,the cashless mode of transaction and the decentralization of population to the western regions of growth will see a seismic shift.
We are living in interesting times.
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