On an eventful 3rd day of JlF’17, a session discussed if the “superpower” China will own the 21st century. Putting forth their views, Rob Schmitz, American journalist and author of Street of Eternal Happiness, said that China may look like a country taking over the world but internally it is just one nation with a lot of restrictions for its own citizens. “The leader of China has tried its level best to keep the truth from its own people. The records are not open for public to see and those who are speaking against such system are held and thrown behind the bars,” he added. Rob also said that while the country’s urban population is not happy about the Government, the rural population seems satisfied with the policies of the authorities and seem to do fine with it. He rested his case saying that it is not true that China will own the 21st century.
Agreeing with Rob, Madeleine O’Dea, writer, journalist and editor said, “If this question was asked seven years ago, the answer would have been a yes. China was doing fantastic in terms of per capita, there was an easy environment for the Chinese population to live in. But today, it might look like China can own 21st century but looking at the real picture which shows the internal scene of the country, I can say that it cannot achieve that.” Drawing a comparison between the US and China, Madeleine said that people in the world look at America as the “soft superpower”. They look at the US with hope and dreams. While China is looked upon as a “tough superpower” which isn’t deemed good with the world population.
Mei Fong, Malaysian-Chinese-American journalist and also a Pulitzer Prize awardee put forth her views about China, where she also grew up, and said, “The points my fellow panelists highlighted, stands true. Apart from what they said there is one more major problem which China deals with — sex ratio.”
The session was presented by C. Raja Mohan and came to a conclusion which directed that it would be difficult for China to own the 21st century given the internal circumstances it is dealing with at present.