GOOD MORNING FROM LONDON
#1 TWO VIEWS OF CHINA.
PROFESSOR KERRY BROWN
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
“We have a challenge to deal with China as an innovator, but our mindset is not really ready. We need to accept that when a country produces more STEM graduates than any other country, when a country has US$400 billion a year into research and development, which China does well, when a country has leadership in many research areas, it is a new world order. That’s the change, and it’s happened.
So we have to look at China in that framework now, and that’s where we have to make a fundamental change.”
IRWIN STELZER
THE SUNDAY TIMES
“The most intense battle is being fought between the world’s two largest economies. One country has prospered by breaking all the trading rules governing world subsidies, theft of IP, currency manipulation discriminating against American companies. Both Xi Jinping and Donald Trump have collected grievances over the years; Xi for centuries of “humiliation” of his country by the West. Trump for China’s “theft ” of American jobs and factories”.
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
Two contrasting views of China from writers coming at China from different vantage points. Kerry Brown was a diplomat with the British Embassy in Beijing and observed China and its economy at close quarters. He is attached to the Lau Institute in Hong Kong and is a writer on Chinese affairs. Irwin Stelzer is an American economist who has been for many years the U.S. economic and business columnist for The Sunday Times in the United Kingdom.
Their perspectives are quite different. Stelzer, echoing Trump’s prejudice against things Chinese, claims that China has reached the present by “breaking all trading rules…theft of IP…currency manipulation” and “discrimination” against American companies. In a phrase the Chinese are cheats, liars and fraudsters. With his choice of words, Stelzer echoes the 19th Century racism associated with “slant eyes”, and the racist ideology of “Yellow Peril”.
I do not say that Stelzer is a racist but unconsciously he plays to the traditional representation of the supervillain Fu Manchu, whose facial traits of squinting eyes and long moustache have for many years been the symbol of evil Asians created by British novelist Sax Rohmer in 1913.
Zhong Weimin, professor of history at Tsinghua University says that “the creation of Fu Manchu was associated with Westerners’ negative impressions about Chinese formed in the 19th century when they met obstacles in trade and communication with China,” Over time, Fu Manchu became the most notorious Western portrayal of the Chinese, and even Asians, as a whole both in print and on screen.
Bear in mind the Chinese female character O-lan in the 1937 movie “The Good Earth” adapted from Pearl S. Buck’s novel was played by white actress Luise Rainer with her eyes taped back. In the 1961 film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” American actor Mickey Rooney played the Japanese character Mr. Yunioshi by creating the feature of slanted eyes with special makeup which drew wide criticism.
Slanted eyes, as a main feature of stereotyped Asian faces, reflect historical prejudice, and making slanted eyes has become a typical gesture to mock Asians. In fact, contrary to popular belief, the slanted appearance of the eyes in many Chinese is not due to the shape of the eyeball itself, but rather a fold of skin on the upper eyelid. This fold, called the epicanthic fold, tends to cover the inner corner of the eye and create the appearance of a slant.
Kerry Brown adopts a quite different approach. China, he asserts, is an innovator that “produces more STEM graduates than any other country”; that spends US$400 billion a year into research and development, and is a country which exercises leadership “in many research areas.” China, he concludes is a new world order. The change in China has happened.
A famous Cambridge Historian – E. H. Carr – advised his undergraduates to study the historian before studying the his/her history. Where is he/she coming from? What is their axe? And where does it grind?
Everyone has an angle. Some admit to it and others intentionally confuse the reader into believing that their conclusions are entirely objective without any element of partiality or prejudice. Ditto for journalists.
That is not a reason for holding your hands up in despair and proclaiming “ A Plague Upon you All”. There is a way forward and it lies more with the objectivity of Brown than with the partiality of Stelzer.
The Americans have a problem. They have, for manty years, dismissed China as a vulnerable upstart guilty of flirting with success by manipulating figures. China is not for real. It will all unravel. Each year their academics contend that “this is the year that the economy of China will founder and fail”. China shrugs its collective shoulders and gets on with the job in hand of turning China into “a prosperous country by 2049”.
Pause for a moment and reflect on what it means for China to produce more STEM graduates than any other country. How many students? How many teaching staff? How many Universities? How many graduate faculties? And there is more; How much laboratory equipment? How many teaching manuals? And how many cities built to make advanced level teaching facilities available to the 1.4 billion population. Behind the increased number of STEM graduates lies the increased expenditure on education.
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#2 EXTRACTS
NIKKEI ASIA
“China appears eager to fill any void left by the U.S. on the global stage, offering itself as an alternative to the American-led world order. Many experts argue that Trump’s protectionist and isolationist policies provide Beijing an opportunity to portray itself as the defender of multilateralism, a theme Xi touted in Vietnam recently.For Kenya’s Ruto, this will be his second visit to Beijing in less than a year, after he attended the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation last September. He is expected to capitalize on Beijing’s elevation of ties with Africa to a “strategic level” during the forum, seeking financing for Kenya’s key infrastructure projects while expanding trade and technology support.
China’s overall trade with Africa has nearly doubled in a decade, reaching $295 billion in 2024.”
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
China is on the front foot. It is engaged in a life-or-death struggle with the U.S. But it will not go to the wire unless War breaks out. It is more likely to end with a change in the balance of power between the two countries. China has its internal divisions – human rights and civic society for starters – but when it comes to China National it is China United. Trump will, in turn, stir internal dissent. The net result will be a significant change in China’s favour.
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#3 EXTRACTS
MEARSHEIMER ON SUBSTACK
“On 17 April 2025, I was on “Judging Freedom” with Judge Napolitano. We discussed the Trump administration’s inability to formulate a clear and coherent policy on both Iran and Ukraine, while doing nothing to end the genocide in Gaza. We also touched on how badly Trump’s tariffs have been received at home and abroad and the growing evidence that they will probably hurt the United States more than China. It was a depressing conversation, but hopefully an informative one.”
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
Mearsheimer is an American loyalist. Nothing left wing about him – at all. He is a prominent academic with a West Point military background and he wants the U.S. to come out on top. But he is increasingly critical of Washington. His conclusion is that Trump’s Tariffs “will probably hurt the United States more than China.”
CHINA AND THE FOREIGN MEDIA
