Long Lens
While Daotong Strategy reports focus on time-sensitive political and financial issues, the Long Lens reflects on deeper cultural patterns, presenting opportunities to engage in comparative history and throw light on the behaviors of Beijing today.
01
The Ideological Affinity of China and the West: Legalism with Western Characteristics
The West and China have replaced older, static, external markers of legitimacy with an internal equivalent: legality. Differentiation will be necessary if either party wishes to frame hostilities around ideological disparity.
02
Roman and Chinese Secrets of Enduring Empire: La ultra longue durée
Achieving hegemony is one thing, hardwiring longevity is another. Thinking about this challenge requires in-depth case studies of other long-lived civilizations to ground the theory, art and practice of good governance.
03
Behind the Rhetoric: Comparisons of Chinese and Western Conceptions of Otherness
The PRC portrays itself in continuity with imperial precursors which provided inclusive, cosmopolitan models. In reality, however, these societies were often xenophobic, encoding ideologies that still influence and shape the political and social rights of minority communities within and outside China today.
04
State over Economy: How Marxism perpetuates its Confucian-Legalist Inheritance
While China is often portrayed as a rogue for upholding Marxist ideals in a world that has largely abandoned them, from a domestic perspective it displays the permanence of a social contract which frames all forms of non-absolutist government as an existential threat.
