Xiang Lanxin
{{short description|Chinese liberal intellectual and professor}}{{Liberalism in China}}
Xiang Lanxin (born 1956, {{lang-zh|c=相蓝欣|p=Xiāng Lánxīn}}){{family name footnote|lang=Chinese|Xiang}} is a Chinese scholar of international relations and the history of modern China. He is an expert on relations among China, USA and Europe, an emeritus professor of history and international relations at the Geneva Graduate Institute and director of the Center for One Belt, One Road Studies in Shanghai.{{Cite web |last=Escobar |first=Pepe |date=2020-10-08 |title=Shedding light on the limits of Chinese power |url=http://asiatimes.com/2020/10/shedding-light-on-the-limits-of-chinese-power/ |access-date=2023-10-02 |website=Asia Times |language=en-US}}
Early life and career
Xiang was born in Nanjing, Jiangsu in 1956. He attended college at Fudan University in Shanghai before moving to the United States to earn an MA and PhD from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in 1990.{{cite web |last1=Xiang |first1=Lanxin |title=Interview with Well-Known International Politics Expert, Professor Xiang Lanxin: His Thoughts on Wolf Warrior Culture, His Calls for Civilized Communication |url=https://www.readingthechinadream.com/xiang-lanxin-on-wolf-warrior-diplomacy.html |access-date=9 July 2020 |date=30 April 2020}} Translated with commentary by David Ownby of the Reading the China Dream project from [https://wemp.app/posts/23513a3c-13db-4f44-b39f-07bae6a3a3ee the original] (in Chinese). He served as a professor of International History and Politics Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland from 1996 to 2021.{{cite web |title=LANXIN XIANG |url=https://graduateinstitute.ch/academic-departments/faculty/lanxin-xiang |publisher=Graduate Institute of Geneva |access-date=8 July 2020}} Xiang has spent the majority of his career working outside of China, though he still maintains Chinese citizenship.
Views
Xiang falls within the liberal spectrum of Chinese political thinkers. He considers himself patriotic, but is also critical of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and believes the country should embrace democracy. In his book The Quest for Legitimacy in Chinese Politics, a New Interpretation he compared CCP leadership to the tsars of Russia leading up to the October Revolution,{{cite news |last1=Gehriger |first1=Urs |date=3 March 2020 |title=Lanxin Xiang: 'The Trend Cannot Be Stopped' |work=Die Weltwoche |url=https://www.weltwoche.ch/ausgaben/2020-10/weltwoche-international/lanxin-xiang-die-weltwoche-ausgabe-10-2020.html |access-date=9 July 2020}} "with charlatans and sycophants running amuck{{sic|hide=y|amok}}."{{cite news |date=18 December 2019 |title=Communism is not what worries the world about China's Communist Party |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/china/2019/12/18/communism-is-not-what-worries-the-world-about-chinas-communist-party |url-access=subscription |access-date=9 July 2020}} Xiang is also highly critical of Montesquieu and his view of democracy, which he sees as racialist and ignorant of China's historical structures of power and governance. Xiang instead advocates a view of democracy informed by Confucianism and direct democracy.
Xiang argues that China had a relatively stable system of governance pilloried by many European thinkers—such as Montesquieu, Marx, Hegel, and Adam Smith—who understood Asia only as a negative example, unworthy of study in its own right.{{cite news |last1=Skidelsky |first1=Robert |date=11 December 2019 |title=More than challenging the West, China seeks legitimacy |work=Taipei Times |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2019/12/11/2003727344 |access-date=9 July 2020}}
Xiang is critical of "Wolf Warrior diplomacy", the moniker given to more aggressive and confrontational diplomatic behavior by the People's Republic of China in the 21st century, which he considers unproductive and the result of influence of Martin Jacques' book When China Rules the World.
In a 2020 interview with the blog publication Reading the China Dream, Xiang mocked the association of colleague Zhang Weiwei with the unaccredited and discredited Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations, in Switzerland.{{Cite web |title=Xiang Lanxin, "On Wolf Warrior Diplomacy" |url=https://www.readingthechinadream.com/xiang-lanxin-on-wolf-warrior-diplomacy.html |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=Reading the China Dream |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Zhang Weiwei |url=https://www.weforum.org/people/zhang-weiwei/ |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250124090832/https://www.weforum.org/people/zhang-weiwei/ |archive-date=2025-01-24 |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=World Economic Forum |language=en}}
References
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Category:Chinese political philosophers
Category:Fudan University alumni
Category:Johns Hopkins University people
Category:Academic staff of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies