Comments (4)

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1. kangsheng January 27, 2012 at 5:32 am
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   I’m not sure it’s entirely philosophically coherent, but as one of China’s leading IR intellectuals, it’s interesting to see him lay out some of his moral thinking: he’s argued for a while that if China is really to achieve greatness it “needs a model at home that can inspire people abroad” as well as exercising “moral leadership” in its international environment (see e.g. http://nyti.ms/wu9Z0u). What that actually looks like has sometimes been more elusive, but it would probably need to be a version of universalism “with Chinese characteristics”… He has what sounds like a bit of a shot at describing elements of that here. Will be a big debate for China in the decades ahead…
2. EH January 25, 2012 at 12:14 am
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   Interesting stuff Xibai – esp his pts about the numerics/temporal nature of ethics. Is it fair to say for him universal values are emergent properties / empirically-revealed codes of behaviour? Rather than something which can be prescribed? Or have I misunderstood?
   • xibaixu January 25, 2012 at 12:51 am
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     EH, you are correct. In his opinion, universal values are just ‘out there’, to be discovered through empirical, scientific research rather than debates.
3. xibaixu January 24, 2012 at 9:31 pm
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   Since YouTube is inaccessible in China, I uploaded the clip to Sina Video, and it was deleted within hours. I am totally baffled because Yan Xuetong is a very well-known scholar in China, and honestly I don’t see anything ‘sensitive’ in the video that would warrant such sanction.