伦敦城市大学客座教授约翰·霍金斯为英国《金融时报》撰稿（原文）
China President Visit to USA
John Howkins
As China prepared for the recent state visit to the US a Chinese artist was opening a major new show at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Ai Weiwei plays with the idea of the artist as joker and prankster mixed with distaste for the Chinese state. Two of the most largest installations in London explore the corruption in the construction industry revealed by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and re-enact his period in prison in 2011.
I doubt Beijing thinks much about contemporary art even though Ai’s fight against corruption plays to one of the government’s priorities. But it might ponder on how its promotion of Chinese soft power copes with its attitude of the Chinese artist who is best known in the West.
It is the same Chinese attitude that also has been criticised for mishandling last summer’s stock market wobbles, and the government certainly paid attention to that.
The government’s attitude to artists and the stock market both demonstrate its attitude to events that don’t go to plan.
August’s downturn was a shock to anyone who needed capital at short notice but most Chinese had been expecting something nasty to happen and were not surprised when it did. The CEO of a major state-owned company advised me several times last year to sell property in China and buy in America.
The government’s attitude, seen across the board from culture to economic policy, often appears that, if you are not with me, you are against me. There are few half-measures. Debates within the party can be as informed and vigorous as anything in the West but, once decided, there is little appeal. The party does not easily delegate power.
In economic policy that means China has not set up the kind of regulatory agencies that elsewhere ensure industry and the public behaves in accordance with national policy. These agencies have a government remit and government-appointed leaders, but they work closely with industry and the public and have a degree of discretion rather than impose government policy.
In China, the party has not taken this step. It prefers to operate by taking its own rapid executive decisions.
It has grown extraordinarily successful by treating everything in these terms, either state-owned or privately-owned, and relied on the party authority and party-led guanxi to cope with any troubles.
This unity and determination is a major reason for China’s growth.
The government has seen no virtue and cannot imagine an independent agency having the authority to take its own decisions. It doesn’t see the point. Its position is strengthened by the concern over corruption and the scandals over food safety and the railways.
But as Chinese companies acquire so much private capital and as they begin to trade overseas, the notion that they can be successfully regulated by executive fief may become difficult.
The failure to consider independent regulatory agencies may trip up the government more often.
The challenges in the creative industries are even greater. The government rightly knows that soft power is highly valued around the world. China has overtaken Europe in economic activity and may be challenging America but it is some way behind in terms of gaining the world’s respect for its culture and lifestyle. It has a rich cultural history, and a lively contemporary scene, and believes it can engineer and exhort these into soft power.
This will succeed in countries where, like China, the government has the final say on cultural matters. But it may be difficult in the rest of the world.
America’s soft power is generated by many thousands of individuals who work alone or are supported by federal, state and private agencies that want to encourage personal expression and novelty, often in the face of the social consensus.
When asked for advice on how to build a version of Hollywood I point out that the founders of the major studios were immigrants and outsiders who wanted to get as far away as possible from the stuffy establishment on the East Coast and the rather puritanical government in Washington, DC
These matters may not have made it on last week’s agenda in the US but they are critical to how Beijing maintains China’s growth in coming years.
For understandable reasons, Beijing’s policy in recent years has been to concentrate power through super-ministerial leading groups. It may now be time to think about decentralisation and study the role played by independent agencies in America’s power, both hard and soft.
Likewise, it might benefit from allowing artists to succeed or fail on their own terms. Artists are neither wholly good not wholly bad. It is difficult for a government to micromanage art and stock markets and promote global soft power at the same time.
