[addictedcs]

It's the same narrative all over again. When no strong arguments are present to defend a viewpoint, the topic suddenly becomes a "cultural" thing. Sounding smart and mysterious. In Russia, it's "the Russian way", in China it is "the Chinese way" etc. It's just BS.

[archibaldJ]

What you have just said is very postmodern and the meta-narrative (or meta-sentiment) could be applied to virtually anything. I was merely trying to shift the focus of the heated discussion here as things were getting homogenous and reddit-like.

[addictedcs]

I was born in the USSR and it also had it's "own way". And it didn't resist even 70 years. The elephants in the room mentioned by others in the comments are all "meta" things at the highest level of human cognition: basic human rights, freedom of expression, religion, overall civil liberties are all above any "<insert nation> ways". Cultural differences are just irrelevant here.

[pas]

Huh. Claiming that there are no valid outer narrative is postmodern.

[archibaldJ]

That is the central problem of the postmodern. It is a framework that inevitably dismisses itself when you go enough meta-level up.

[pas]

I don't see why it dismisses itself. It asks questions, it's just philosophy at that point and the good old epistemological questions. But the first and second order thinking it encourages is a perfectly useful framework.

It helps understand situations vastly different from ours, but it doesn't dismiss your own core values.

It's probably a good postmodern conclusion that truly understanding the Chinese way is impossible without actually being completely in it, but at that point you are again too biased. But that doesn't mean that without a full immersion we can't gain valid insights about it. We can. We are perfectly aware of the big picture, we have seen it hundreds of times by now in various countries (and proto-countries) over the last few thousand years.

[kristjankalm]

so a specific example then -- in your opinion is putting ca one million Uighurs and Kazakhs into internment camps compatible with the 'Chinese way'?