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    Re: Will Confucius marry Marx? Shedding light on the limits of Chinese power II Archived Message

    Posted by Tomski on October 14, 2020, 11:15 am, in reply to "Will Confucius marry Marx? Shedding light on the limits of Chinese power II"

    There are some disagreements regarding Pepe's take on this from MoA (https://www.moonofalabama.org/2020/10/the-moa-week-in-review-open-thread-2020-81.html#more) ... seems apt:

    Pepe Escobar wrote a 2-part article, part one and part two, dealing with academic Lanxin Xiang's book, The Quest for Legitimacy in Chinese Politics, published September 10, 2019 by Routledge. The book's Introduction can be freely downloaded here by scrolling to page bottom and clicking on "Full-Text" within the box on the right.

    My initial reaction to Xiang's Introduction was highly critical and posted as follows at Escobar's FB:

    Having found a PDF of Xiang's Introduction, he makes the following declaration immediately and without any supporting evidence:

    "No doubt, the People’s Republic of China has been facing the most serious legitimacy crisis since its founding in 1949."

    Without any evidence to support that assertion, I have oodles of "doubt." He further appears to posit that Democratic Centralism has completely failed without directly saying. As a scholar, in my appraisal, making such a provocative assertion evidence free is a big error and makes Xiang differ little from those in the West unqualified to write about China even though they try. And the passive language used, "... has been facing..." instead of the direct "... is facing ..." compounds the issue. I'm somewhat surprised you missed that when you wrote your articles.

    I also wrote a few other response comments, some posted at MoA and some at Escobar's FB. Pepe says it's an important work; I see a glaring error immediately. Routledge wants $155 for the 166 page book! As far as I know, there's no "legitimacy crisis" happening within China now or during the time Xiang was compiling his book. Some of what Escobar relates from the work mark it as insightful; but given the unfounded declaration at its outset, just how valid are those insights? Indeed, it appears Xiang has created his own legitimacy crisis by impugning his credibility.
    Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 11 2020 23:46 utc | 65

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