Is there a good response to Chinas “resilient capitalist authoritarianism”?
The world is heading towards the second scenario envisaged by Francis Fukuyama in his afterword to The End of History and the Last Man: a combination of capitalism and authoritarianism, driven by China’s brand of ‘resilient authoritarianism’. Conducted in a spirit of ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’, China has successfully used globalization to make itself indispensable to the functioning of the world economy and solving of world’s problems. This has in turn fuelled the legitimacy and popular support of the Chinese Communist regime, enabling it to tighten its authoritarian rule. ‘If you can’t beat them, join them’ – and thereby beat them China’s post-1978 reform and opening, conducted in a spirit of ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ – and thereby beat them, have led to a situation in which the artillery of the Chinese economy is tightly connected to the world. 2010 is said to be the year in which China will overtake Japan as the second largest economy of the world. The World Expo
