The Thoughts of Chairman Xi
Another article on New Yorker (published in 2015), &quot;Born Red&quot;, is quite interesting as well on this subject.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.newyorker.com&#x2F;magazine&#x2F;2015&#x2F;04&#x2F;06&#x2F;born-red" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.newyorker.com&#x2F;magazine&#x2F;2015&#x2F;04&#x2F;06&#x2F;born-red</a><p>According to the article, Xi once said,<p><pre><code>  &quot;People who have little experience with power, 
   those who have been far away from it, tend 
   to regard these things as mysterious and 
   novel. But I look past the superficial 
   things: the power and  the flowers and 
   the glory and the applause. I see the 
   detention houses, the fickleness of 
   human relationships. I understand politics 
   on a deeper level.&quot; 
</code></pre>
I am sympathetic about Xi&#x27;s early traumatic experience; but I also feel that if he considers that &quot;human relationship&quot; is essentially &quot;fickle&quot;, it would be quite scary as well, especially for a decision maker at a country&#x27;s top level, as he is.  I don&#x27;t know how much trust he has for any one who is not in his family (or even for his family members); but a society with a very low level of mutual trust is a horrible place to live -- not to mention its average interpersonal cooperation cost would be very high, people would even hurt and damage each other&#x27;s interest just to obtain a bit more sense of security.  The harsh censorship there is one such example; as well as that in China more and more people these days are being sent to prison,  after some staged trial in a kangaroo court -- simply because they voiced something that the administration does not want to hear.<p>Humanity itself is a quite complex matter.  It&#x27;s true that sometimes, certain people can be quite cruel, ruthless, or even cold-blooded; but this should not be a universal trait for the overall human beings -- or otherwise, it would have been a definition for the concept of &quot;human&quot; many centuries ago.  There is a dynamic motley of  benignity and malignity in any individual -- and the concept of &quot;benignity&quot; or &quot;malignity&quot; can be relative in certain cases.  It&#x27;s better for us all, if we construct a system that could inspire more benignity (-- or if possible, maximize ) out of us.<p>But today, many dealings by the Chinese government seems to simply view its citizens as objects or even tools, with &quot;fickling&quot; worthiness that does not lie within themselves but is based on the external perspective of the ruling party, to perpetuate their ruling.<p>Perhaps that is why Xi would raise the question to Biden in 2011&#x2F;2, &quot;why does the U.S. put so much emphasis on human rights.&quot; [1]<p>Note:
[1] see <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.newyorker.com&#x2F;magazine&#x2F;2015&#x2F;04&#x2F;06&#x2F;born-red" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.newyorker.com&#x2F;magazine&#x2F;2015&#x2F;04&#x2F;06&#x2F;born-red</a> for the details about that episode...