1. Differences in views of good and evil
To sum up, the Western view of good and evil can be summed up in two sentences: be good to others in life, and prevent evil from others in politics. In life, we advocate fraternity and kindness to everyone, so that the world is full of love; in the design of the political system, we must prevent people from doing evil, and focus on creating a system and mechanism to prevent bad people from doing bad things once they come in. The views of good and evil are very different between the East and the West.
Our country’s political system always imagines that those in power are all advanced elements, aware of the party spirit, and trustworthy. Therefore, they often emphasize appointments and authorizations and neglect restrictions and supervision, resulting in a large number of decision-making errors and large-scale corruption. This lesson is extremely profound. I think our concept of good and evil must also be reshaped and improved. We must also be kind to others in life and guard against evil in politics, so that society can develop stably.
2. Differences in public and private views
The West believes that people are born selfish, selfishness is the driving force for social development, and profit-driven is the eternal theme. The best system design is to tap people's enthusiasm from the perspective of human nature and promote economic development. Therefore, the West liberalizes the individual and private economy, encourages people to get rich, and makes the private economy bigger and stronger.
my country realized this problem only after its reform and opening up, and gradually formed a policy orientation and social atmosphere to vigorously develop the private economy, changing the past situation where public ownership dominated the world and cut off the tail of capitalism everywhere. There is a concept in the West that after people's selfish desires are satisfied, they will repay society. Private property ultimately belongs to society. Don't be afraid of the rich, be jealous of the rich, hate the rich, or exploit the rich.
In the past, our country regarded "private" as a scourge and advocated "fighting against selfishness and criticizing revisionism". "Fighting against selfishness and criticizing revisionism" was shouted for ten years during the Cultural Revolution. This thing has an extremely "leftist" "The color, which deviated from and suppressed human nature, seriously restricted the economic development at that time.
3. Differences in cultural concepts
Westerners advocate three points in cultural concepts, which are very different from ours:
1. Freedom of individuality. In the West, freedom is advocated, individuality is expressed, human rights are respected, and people's strengths are emphasized. Our country's cultural outlook emphasizes "grand unification". Everything must have one model and one way of thinking, and the thoughts are unified at every turn. This affects individuality, suppresses freedom, makes people live a tiring life, and lacks the motivation for diversification in social development.
2. Open and inclusive. Although the history of the United States is short, it is an immigrant country in the world, and cultures from all over the world are intermingled and integrated here, with few constraints from traditional concepts. Therefore, it is the world's number one economic power with independent innovation. my country's three thousand years of natural economy and thirty-year plan Economically, Yelang is arrogant and rejects foreign culture, which hinders cultural innovation and development. This is also the main reason why the economies of the four ancient civilizations are relatively backward.
3. Be serious and trustworthy. Germans work hard, are meticulous, have a strong sense of time, and their honest and trustworthy character embodies German culture, brings economic prosperity, and makes them the third most powerful economic country in the world. At present, our country's social credit system has not yet been established, and there is a general lack of integrity. The five pathological economies - fraud economy, bribery economy, debt economy, counterfeiting economy, and default economy are the consequences of backward cultural concepts.
4. Differences in life outlook
1. Consumption outlook. People are born to seek life, and the quality of life is important. There are great differences in the consumption concepts between the East and the West. The value orientation of the West is based on the quality of people's lives and advocates the "three dos" and the "three don'ts": first, live for yourself, not live for others, and pursue quality with freedom of individuality; The second is to live for today, not for tomorrow, and dare to take out loans to spend ahead of time; the third is to live for this generation, not for the next generation, and not to scrimp on food and clothing to save money for children.
China also has the value of "three we". We are busy all year round with a mouth, eating is the first priority; people live for a breath, regardless of the consequences and fight out of anger; they love face to death and suffer all the time for a face, and want face everywhere. Chinese people prefer to save money to live by, resulting in China's savings rate being too high, reaching more than 46%; resulting in weak domestic demand, insufficient consumption, and weak driving force for economic development.
2. Concept of privacy. Westerners respect human nature and do not peep into or spread other people's privacy, such as age, income, sex life, etc. Inquiring into other people's privacy is the most unethical and offensive thing you can do. But Orientals have an inexplicable interest in personal privacy. They love to discuss privacy in private, spread privacy through gossip, and even use privacy as a tool to harass people. This is a kind of cultural ignorance and backwardness.
3. Views on fertility. Europeans are reluctant to have children for fear that having more children will affect their quality of life. Therefore, generally Western developed countries are experiencing negative population growth, with little pressure on population, resources and ecology.
There are still quite a lot of people in China who believe in having more children, bringing happiness, and raising children to protect them from old age. Some rural areas in rural areas are getting poorer and poorer as they have more children. The population is still growing at a rapid rate, and it is expected that by 2020, my country's population will reach its peak of 1.46 billion people.
5. Differences in the outlook on competition
The differences between the East and the West in the outlook on competition are mainly reflected in two points:
First, whether to compete. China's traditional culture is centered on feudal Confucian culture.
Confucianism emphasizes the golden mean, where going too far is not enough, and harmony is the most important thing. The market economy advocates competition and emphasizes defeating opponents in business wars and winning one's own development. From a Confucian perspective, competition is immoral.
Europeans believe that society needs competition and people need to compete with each other. Competition produces motivation and talent, and only then will the economy develop rapidly through diversified competition.
The second is how to deal with competition. Westerners believe that competition should be conducted in accordance with the law, advocate openness, fairness, and transparency, promote vertical competition, move forward, encourage each other, and use competition to bring impetus to human progress and economic development. Chinese people are influenced by feudal Confucian culture and bound by the feudal small-scale peasant consciousness. They often see competition from another angle.
Chinese people compete sideways and are keen on fighting together. I will run away after I knock you down. This internal friction mechanism has seriously hindered China's progress and development.
6. Differences in educational concepts
China is influenced by feudal Confucian culture. Those who excel in learning will become officials. Studying is to obtain a diploma, and obtaining a diploma is to become an official. This kind of thinking Very marketable. The purpose of learning is to be a superior person and to be superior to others, but not to go to a higher vocational school and become a skilled worker. The West believes that learning knowledge is to acquire abilities, and acquiring abilities is to improve the quality of life.
There are differences in talent value orientation. China is based on diplomas, and everything depends on diplomas. When promoting cadres, it depends on diplomas, and when promoting professional titles, it depends on diplomas. This has caused everyone to rush for diplomas, and there is a huge market for fake diplomas, which has been repeatedly banned. To change this phenomenon, we must advocate competency-based and rely on competency to win as the West does. Diplomas can be faked, but abilities cannot be faked.
The learning requirements are also different. We emphasize rote learning and following rules, while the West emphasizes knowledge updating and ability innovation. Focusing on cultivating students' critical thinking and imagination, most of the world's Nobel Prizes are concentrated in Western developed countries.
7. Differences in family outlook
1. Family miniaturization. Europeans pay attention to miniaturization in their families, with an average of 2.3 people per family. Life is convenient and the quality of life is high. We talk about a big family, with four generations living under one roof, children and grandchildren around our knees, and family happiness. This is a typical feudal big family culture.
2. Family affection fades. Chinese country people go from house to house, drink together, and play mahjong after drinking. There are no such things in Europe. Relatives rarely move around among themselves. They are busy with their own affairs and have no time to visit and chat. They seldom dote on their children and place more emphasis on self-reliance and self-reliance.
3. Parents’ attachment to their children has weakened, and their attachment to their children is not that strong. We rely on social security for our retirement, not our children, so we don’t want to have children, and there is no need to accumulate property for future generations.
8. Differences in views on governance
The West focuses on governing the country according to law, and designs a very strict legal environment so that everyone can work and live in accordance with the law, and everything is in order. China emphasizes governing the country by virtue. Starting from Confucius, it has emphasized benevolence, justice, etiquette, wisdom and trust, using virtue to tame the people, using etiquette to regulate behavior, advocating self-denial and restoration of etiquette, and half of the Analects of Confucius governs the world.
In short, Easterners care about relationships, Westerners care about rules; Easterners care about rule of virtue, Westerners care about rule of law; Easterners care about face, and Westerners care about reality.
9. Differences in views on government power
History has proven that the core of moral governance relies on awareness and self-discipline. It is unreliable for people to rely solely on their consciousness. They must rely on systems and legal systems. The arduous nature of China’s anti-corruption struggle further illustrates this point!
First, there are differences in government functions. The setting of Chinese government functions is very different from that of Western market economy developed countries. The specific manifestation is that Western governments are public service-oriented governments, providing public products, public security, and public services to the people, and do not interfere with corporate economic activities; our government is an omnipotent government, what is the mother-in-law and the mother-in-law? Controlling everything, controlling too much, and interfering too deeply will hinder economic development.
The second is the difference in scale. The Chinese government has too much power and micromanages everything, which has brought about the disadvantages of large institutions, bloated personnel, and overstaffing; there are many people eating "imperial food", heavy financial burdens, and low efficiency. The West has a small government, a large society, and large enterprises. It does not interfere with micro-economic activities and is dedicated to running the society. The environment for economic development is good, and enterprises are less constrained and can develop freely and freely.
The third is the difference in system. The Chinese government emphasizes control and approval, while Western governments emphasize service and coordination. Western governments are "shaking their heads" governments, telling the people that what they are not allowed to do is stipulated by law, and anything else that is not stipulated can be done.
China is a "nodding" government. Everything must be approved by the government. Anyone without a nod is not allowed to do it. Approval is carried out at all levels, which constrains economic development and worsens the economic environment, causing enterprises that develop the economy to There are too few "sheep" and too many "wolves" in the economic law enforcement and control departments, making it difficult to develop the economy. To develop the economy, we can only raise the "sheep" by killing the "wolves". Only by optimizing the environment can we develop the economy.
10. Differences in taxation concepts
Western taxation means that all people pay taxes, and it is honorable to pay taxes. The whole society respects taxpayers, and taxpayers have the right to inspect and supervise the whereabouts of the government's tax dollars. Therefore, taxpayers feel honored, feel at ease when paying taxes, and are motivated. The Western taxation atmosphere is complete, taxpayers' rights and obligations are equal, national taxation and fiscal expenditures are symmetrical, and civil servants correspond to service taxpayers.
In comparison, we lack the concept of paying taxes with honor and respecting them. Therefore, civil servants, including those in public institutions who receive "imperial food", must enhance their awareness of three things: thanking taxpayers, respecting taxpayers, and protecting taxpayers. :
In the thirty years of China’s reform and opening up (1978--2008), East-West relations can be divided into three stages.
The period from 1978 to 1989 was the first stage, the period from 1990 to the first half of 2001 was the second stage, and the present is the third stage. In the past thirty years, there have been both cooperation and conflict between the East and the West, and they have experienced ups and downs as the international situation and China's national power have grown.