China - a modernizing heavyweight like China cannot expect roses all the way

Chinese Leaders Are Being Told To Read One Key Book 

During Their Crucial Leadership Transition

Adam Taylor

What's on the reading list for Chinese politicos, currently in the middle of a vital once-in-a-decade power change?

According to the FT's Jamil Anderlini, China’s next premier Li Keqiang has been telling everyone to read Alexis de Tocqueville's The Old Regime and the French Revolution.

The book, published in 1856, was one of the first major history books to examine the Ancien Regime and exactly what caused the French Revolution that tore it down. Anderlini writes that many are viewing the book as a warning: "de Tocqueville blamed the 1789 French revolution in part on the fact that the bourgeoisie inspired envy among the masses while the nobles elicited scorn".

Anderlini's report seems to be supported by a number of prominent economists who have been discussing the book on Weibo, according to state newspaper China Daily.

"My old boss in Zhongnanhai (the seat of the central government) recommended Tocqueville's book, adding that a modernizing heavyweight like China cannot expect roses all the way; it should brace for a rough ride," economist Hua Sheng wrote on Tencent, the newspaper reported.

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Read more: www.businessinsider.com

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Tocqueville French Revolution Classic

on China's Bestsellers List

Thanks to China's top officials, French historian Alexis de Tocqueville’s “The Old Regime and the Revolution”, a 19th-century classic about the French revolution, has become a best seller in China. According to a report on Business Week [zh], after Chinese Communist Party Vice Premier Wang Qishan highly recommended this book, it sold out in many bookstores in Beijing.

Chong Ming, a history professor who studies Alexis de Tocquevilleexplained [zh]:

Many civil servants read it just to follow leaders’ interests. In China, officials have a big influence on the political culture.

Why did Chinese officials suggest this classic on the subject of revolution? Scholars started heated discussions on the Chinese social media and blogosphere.

A search of “The Old Regime and the Revolution” on Weibo yields 235,416 results, crackling with quotes from the book:

Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man, socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.

Great revolutions that have happened historically, such as violent revolutions, did not occur during a time of poverty. They occurred when economic situations brought polarization to society. This is because at times like these, conflict between social classes is incited. It is easy for those in the bottom classes of the society to turn the flames of their anger into flames of war.

Some scholars think that the social background at the time of French Revolution is very similar to the conditions in today’s China.

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Read more: globalvoicesonline.org