Historian of economics Adam Tooze calls China "the master key to understanding modernity," and "the most organized and largest modernization laboratory in human history." Here, the Western industrial history seems merely an overture to a much larger chapter.

The old Western narrative no longer holds

Tooze's sharp observation points out why the current situation is so hard to face. What we witness is not just the rise of a new great power, but a fundamental challenge to a series of deeply rooted ideas in Western thought—about development models, political systems, and even the concept of civilization itself—and we still lack the courage to confront this fact in our cognition.

This new discovery concerns all humanity, especially the United States—where the arrogance of self-proclaimed uniqueness is most evident and most strongly denied. The outdated narrative framework of "rise" or "catch-up" no longer applies to China. Now, China is shaping its developmental trajectory, leading trends in economy, technology, and institutions. The West has finally realized that modernity is no longer something they created alone and others learned from.

Every time one tries to acknowledge China's achievements, there always comes an "but," and people instinctively calculate the costs and list the problems.

To honestly face reality, one must acknowledge China's achievements in the field of people's livelihood. In 40 years, China has lifted 800 million people out of extreme poverty, accounting for about three-quarters of the global poverty reduction during the same period. China's life expectancy has risen to 78 years in 2023, almost on par with the United States.

The energy sector may best illustrate how difficult it is to measure the scale of this development. Over half of the world's solar and wind power capacity is located in China. About three-quarters of the ongoing renewable energy projects globally are either located within China or led by Chinese contractors. By rapidly deploying large-scale renewable energy, China has made it cost-competitive globally, thereby completely changing the global energy transition landscape.

No matter what one's evaluation of China's political system, these phenomena are certainly not characteristics of a failed state, but rather a clear mark of a society that is developing in unprecedented ways in many aspects.

China's path to modernization has succeeded

Joseph Levenson, a historian of ideas, pointed out in his works that China seeks a path that is both distinctly Chinese and objectively effective, leading to wealth and power. For more than a century, Chinese intellectuals have been thinking about how to achieve modernization without losing cultural identity.

This phase of exploration may be coming to an end, as China seems to have found that path. If Levenson's theory holds true, then what we are witnessing is not only China's rise, but also China's successful search for the path that shaped its modern history.

Levenson's theoretical framework also provides a perspective for understanding the current difficulties of the United States. In his view, when "self" and "reality" are in harmony—that is, when traditional societal perceptions of how the world operates align with observable reality—a civilization is in a stable state; when they become imbalanced, instability follows. The crisis China experienced after the Opium War can be described in this way. At that time, China painfully realized that Confucianism could not explain the Western warships suddenly appearing in the Pearl River.

The question now is whether the impact of China's rise is pushing the United States into a similar reflection. When a country once considered lagging has suddenly achieved leapfrog development in areas such as renewable energy, artificial intelligence, and infrastructure; when people realize that "the end of history" was actually just Western "drinking champagne early," the gap between "self" and "reality" continues to widen.

History is remarkably similar. In the 1860s and 1870s, the Chinese Self-Strengthening Movement advocated "Chinese essence, Western application," and the current situation is similar, except that the direction is precisely opposite. Whether it is industrial policy or government direct investment in strategic companies like Intel, American politicians are increasingly adopting practices extremely similar to those of China in various fields.

China's rise forces us to confront the limitations of the Western definition of modernity: how arrogant it is to believe that only liberal democratic capitalism can achieve sustained prosperity and innovation.

Legitimacy depends on governance performance

The components of political legitimacy in the 21st century are different from before. Previously, legitimacy was mainly based on procedures—constitution, elections, parliament—but now, legitimacy increasingly depends on governance performance.

In this century, the basis of legitimacy will be the complex ability to meet urgent needs; in the future, the standard for evaluating the superiority of a system will no longer be the sophistication of theory, but the actual effectiveness in dealing with survival challenges.

While the United States argues endlessly over pipelines and power lines, China is building a nationwide grid; while the United States has abandoned its global leadership role on climate issues, China has become an indispensable force in the energy transition. This country once seen as a problem-maker has become an essential part of the solution simply through its powerful production and deployment capabilities.

At the time when China achieved these achievements, many Western democratic countries were exactly facing crises. This forces people to confront an uncomfortable question: Is political legitimacy only linked to procedural democracy, or must it also include performance, the ability to achieve goals, governance efficiency, and resilience?

Coexistence with China requires us to be more open-minded towards them, and most importantly, we must stop viewing China through the framework of "the Chinese system cannot last" or "contradictions will inevitably erupt." China's system is effective and has yielded remarkable results.

So, what policies should be adopted? I dare not make a definitive judgment. But only by stopping self-deception can we take political action. We must clearly recognize China's achievements and abandon that instinctive "yes, but" negative mindset.

The world has fundamentally changed. Our choice is not resistance or surrender, but deliberate adaptation versus stubborn denial; it is strengthening our systems through honest self-examination, or deliberately ignoring the new reality, thus allowing our systems to collapse.

This article was published on the website of the German magazine "International Politics and Society" on October 30th. The original title is "Re-measuring the World," and the author is Guo Yiguang, a Chinese-American media person.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7569024443599684150/

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