How Western audiences reveal their programmed biases when confronted with objective analysis of Chinese politics Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波  22.07.2025 The whole situation with the awkward questioning after my lectures bears a strong resemblance to what happened to Marco Polo on ...

Beyond confrontation: How China unveils the West’s imperative to adapt Gordon Dumoulin 22.07.2025 China national library in Beijing. My own photo 26.09.2024 Gordon Dumoulin The gloves of performative virtue are off in the West. For years, the “China threat” narrative was cloake ...

From confrontation to cooperation Jan Oberg  08.07.2025 This is an article, re-published with the approval of the authors of “If You Want To Understand China” – Foreword, Intro and Content of a TFF anthology. In July 2020, former US Secretary of Sta ...

How Confucian culture first delayed and then accelerated China’s innovation.      Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波  04.07.2025 Smashing the European myth For centuries, Western narratives have portrayed science and technology as exclusively Western achievements, ...

The immense cultural differences between China and the West make the discussion about the technology competition pointless. Peter Peverelli • 15 july 2025 Chinese vs American application of AI; cartoon RedNote (disclaimer) Culture What most Westerners fail to understand is that the ...

China’s long term strategy paid off. The West never saw it coming    Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波  08.07.2025 Since the turn of the 21st century, China has not merely participated in global systems shaped by Western powers; it has decisively reconfigured them. From trade gove ...

The devastating influence of having no future.     Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波  01.07.2025 Losing faith in the future In many western societies, the erosion of faith in the future has become one of the defining psychological and political crises of the 21st century. E ...

How truth decays in a world of tribal narrative.     Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波  23.06.2025 Trust, but verify, lessons in healthy scepticism When my father-in-law boasted of shooting 23 German soldiers in World War II, I didn’t take his word for it. Digging into archives ...

Short-term politics, media puppets, and the death of innovation.     Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波  07.06.2025 The short term vision Western political and economic systems are collapsing under the weight of short-termism, media dependency, and the marginalisation of eng ...

It was high time to cut the cord and to end a toxic dependency.     Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波  02.06.2025 Chinese brands, media, financial institutions and apps The Western grip: an uneasy dependence For more than two decades, I have been acutely aware of the growing ...

Quantitative rigor vs. ideological echo chambers in higher education   Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波  14.05.2025 STEM versus sociology To render the discussion more transparent, it is first necessary to define the concept of sociology and to delineate the precise scope of the STE ...

One constructed by the west, one lived by the Chinese   Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波  12.05.2025 A mirror divided A friend asked me last week: “Are there two Chinas then ?” His question, while simple, struck at the heart of a deeper truth: our view of China is often not shaped by e ...

The case against western electoral ritualism Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波  30.04.2025 Elections in China On the evening of 24/04/2025, I witnessed yet another masterpiece of acting … in a speech by the faction leader of the largest political party in our parliament to our service club. T ...

While we graduate activists, China builds EVs Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 21.04.2025 Two futures, One choice: While Europe’s lecture halls burn through their past, China’s assembly lines build the future. Talent, capital, and ambition cross the divide—one microchip, one electric vehicle at a ...

National identity as a catalyst for collective progress Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 11.04.2025 A synthesis of cultural heritage and modern nationalism Introduction The interplay of peace (和平, hépíng), harmony (和谐, héxié), and happiness (幸福, xìngfú) in China is deeply rooted in its ...