La Cina verso la nuova Leadership. Le sfide politiche ed economiche nell'anno del drago

Seán Golden, member of the Inter-Asia research group, spoke at the conference La Cina verso la nuova Leadership. Le sfide politiche ed economiche nell'anno del drago, organized by the Dipartimento di Studi sull'Asia e sull'Africa Mediterranea, Università Ca'Foscari Venezia (Italy), on 3 May 2012, in collaboration with the journal east. rivista europea di geopolitica and the think tank Istituto per gli Studi di Politiche internazionale on the occasion of launching Numero 41, Ombre cinesi (Aprile 2012) in Venice.

Abstract

The Party-State of the PRC is going through a generational change that will be formalised by the Party Congress in October 2012. The rapidly changing status of the PRC in the new world order requires a rethinking of many of the ideological bases of the socialist revolution in China. There are epistemic and interpretive communities acting as advisers to the new leadership that are proposing new paradigms “with Chinese characteristics” for international relations theory: Qin Yaqing, Yan Xuetong and Zhao Tingyang as examples.

Il Partito-Stato del PRC sta attraversando un cambio generazionale che sarà formalizzato dal Congresso del Partito in ottobre 2012. Lo stato di rapida evoluzione del PRC nel nuovo ordine mondiale richiede un ripensamento di molte delle basi ideologiche della rivoluzione socialista in Cina. Ci sono comunità epistemiche e interpretative che agiscono come consulenti per la nuova dirigenza che stanno proponendo paradigmi “con caratteristiche cinesi” per le teorie delle relazioni internazionali: Yaqing Qin, Yan Xuetong e Zhao Tingyang come esempi.

Constructing a Discourse of "Scientific Development" and "Ecological Civilisation" in China. Ecology and Ideology in Chinese Thought

Seán Golden, member of the Inter-Asia research group, spoke at the 9th EastAsiaNet Research Workshop at Universidade de Aveiro (Portugal, 19-21 April 2012) dedicated to risk and the environment in East ASia on the subject of Constructing a Discourse of "Scientific Development" and "Ecological Civilisation" in China. Ecology and Ideology in Chinese Thought.

Abstract

Hu Jintao introduced the concept of “scientific development” into official Party discourse. This is understood to refer to the need for better environmental management, the reduction of environmental degradation and conservation of the environment. Think tanks of the Central Committee have elaborated a discourse of “Ecological Civilisation” to accompany the previously constructed discourses of “Material Civilisation” (the economy), “Spiritual Civilisation” (culture) and “Political Civilisation” (democracy and the rule of law). References to Nature in an environmental or ecological context are rare in the history of Chinese thought, much more associated with Daoism than with Confucianism, but they do exist. Lynn White (“The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis”) pointed out long ago that the book of Genesis lies behind Western notions of the exploitation of nature. Frans de Wahl (The Ape and the Sushi Master) suggested that Japanese primatologists made important discoveries about the role of culture among primates earlier than their Western counterparts because of their grounding in a Shinto perception of the natural world. This study proposes to compare and contrast the ideological bases of Euroamerican and East Asian approaches to the environment.