China's Solution
The rise of China's networked state (through the lens of Wang Huning)
As tensions with China and Russia continue to ramp up, it’s clear that we need a deeper understanding of these countries than historical-cultural analysis. In particular, we need to understand how they are remaking themselves for a networked age.
Let’s start with a look at China and the thinking of Wang Huning.
The Networked State
The big question we all face is: what does the networked state look like? A:
Stable (not in turmoil)
Prosperous (allows rapid technological and material innovations)
Resilient (to challenges that arise from networked globalization)
China’s Approach
To understand China’s approach to the networked state, we need to start with the thinking of its architect, Wang Huning. Wang is:
Xi Jinping’s (President/Chairman/General Secretary of China for life) closest
advisor.
The author of China’s future economic, social and technological plans.
Seen as a founding father of modern China (Hugh Hewitt: “roll Hamilton,
Jefferson and Madison together, and that approaches Wang’s stature in China.)
How to Parse Wang’s Vision
The best source of information on how Wang Huning thinks is his recently very popular (in China) early book, “America against America” (pdf upload of a machine translation). It’s a recount of his tour to the US during the late eighties. In the book, Wang attempts to:
Figure out what makes the US so successful and stable (relative to other countries) while being unparalleled in rapid technological and material progress.
Learn lessons from the US that can be applied to China’s modernization. First with the transition from communism to capitalism and then as a modern developed nation (and beyond).
Determine where the US system will run into problems — contradictions that will collapse the US system — so something similar can be avoided in China.
Wang’s Goal
Overall, Wang approaches the topic using a complex systems perspective. His goal is to define a control system (social decision-making system) that will allow China to modernize and accommodate rapid advancement once fully developed. Key features of this system:
To preserve social stability (historically, a key focus of China, given the intense
competition between families and a massive population) during a period of rapid change.
To allow unfettered technological and material innovation (open-ended
prosperity) without fear of instability.
To build a dynamic system that can rapidly adapt to changes, even when the challenges are highly complex.
NOTE: Wang’s approach is surprisingly prescient for a book written in the late eighties. His question is the same question we are now faced with: how do we build a viable societal decision-making system (a complex control system) that allows us to prosper despite the disruptive challenges of rapid technological change and networked globalization?
Wang’s Analysis
Here are the elements of the US ‘control system’ Wang focused on:
Commercial commodification. He concludes (rightly) that a large modern society is too complex for a government to rule centrally. The commercial commodification of critical systems (housing, health care, food, etc.) creates a self-organizing platform that lightens the load on government decision-making.
Tradition. He concludes that the US is conservative (slow to change) in its approach to values and that it has found a way to turn its short history into traditions and commonalities that support an enduring civil religion that grounds the conduct of individuals (implication: this design reduces the burden on the government to maintain stability). This system stabilizes the US, allowing it to freely embrace technological and material innovations that would swamp other nations of a similar size. Due to this system’s design, technological and material innovations don’t damage the nation’s core values; they enriched them (Wang: in contrast, “the culture of some societies… are unified with all kinds of things related to values, which often tend to constrain technological and material progress”).
Individualism. The US focus on individuality drives technological and material innovation. Novelty creation is a method of differentiating individuals and the basis of social recognition. As long as the US values individualism, it will continue to produce the novelties that drive technological and material progress.
Decentralization. Political decentralization, from independent state governments and a plethora of local governments, allows adaptation to complex challenges created by rapid technological and material advances. This structure enables the US to experiment with adaptations because it serves as a brake on changes in values that may destabilize society. Additionally, the proliferation of decentralized religious and non-conforming social groups (Amish, etc.) also slows changes in social values that have the potential to create instability. Wang notes that despite its decentralized political structure, a unified commercial commodification platform -- travel, communications, computers, etc. -- keeps the US unified.
Education. The US has led the world in education, allowing the country to reinforce traditional values and reproduce institutions over time. Historically, the decentralization of this educational system (due to the influence of states and local governments) has slowed the rate of change in core values. This provides the US with a level of stability not seen in nationalized systems that centrally control school curricula. Additionally, the US post-secondary education provides a way to modernize its population by teaching how to properly use and apply new technological and material innovations (something he calls the “laboratory of modernization” for a society).
Wang’s Contradictions
Wang was able to point out contractions that threaten the viability of the US system, some of which have been proven true due to the rise of networked globalization. Here’s his take: