American Academy Lecture at the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung

The Autocratic Alternative

The West and its East Asian allies, under the leadership of the United States, are currently moving toward a cold war with China. This conflict is likely to be more difficult to resolve to the West’s advantage than was the Cold War with the Soviet Union. In that instance, the Soviet experiment proved to be an economic disaster; at the moment, the same cannot be said of China. For autocrats worldwide, and especially those in developing countries, China’s rapid economic development offers an attractive alternative to what many see as a confusing, cumbersome liberal democracy based on a culture of debate.

In this talk, Ian Buruma discusses the cultural origins of this political propaganda, which he traces to Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia in the 1980s up into Xi Jinping’s so-called Chinese Dream today. Buruma looks closely these assumptions from the perspective of his veteran experience as a journalist in Asia, and he ventures a critique of the notion that freedoms taken for granted in the West do not apply in non-Western countries.

Following his talk, Buruma will be in conversation with Daniel Leese, Professor of Sinology at the University of Freiburg. The event will be held in English.

REGISTER TO ATTEND VIA THE FRITZ THYSSEN STIFTUNG WEBSITE.

Joint Visiting Speaker Series in cooperation with the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung and AmerikaHaus NRW e.V.