/lit/ - Literature

This thread is for discussion of the untranslated magnum opus by Wang Huning, considered the Chinese response to Tocqueville's 'Democracy in America'.

America against America 《美国反对美国》 is a 1991 book published by Wang Huning, then a professor of International Relations at Fudan University in Shanghai, one of the most pre-eminent schools in the country. Wang turned out to be a bit of a political wunderkind - he gained the attention of some close allies of the then-head of state Jiang Zemin in the 1990s. He has headed the Central Policy Research Office of the Chinese Communist Party since 2002. He has been part of the Politburo Standing Committee since 2017, and he was appointed as the head of the Central Guidance Commission on Building Spiritual Civilization that same year. He has been a part of the administrations of Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao before Xi Jinping came to power, and it is unusual he would hold that office for so long given the expected turnover of personnel at that level. He is regarded by outside observers as one of the most influential theorists in the country.

In 1988, Wang was a visiting scholar in the United States for six months, spending the first three months at The University of Iowa, three weeks at Cal Berkeley, and traveled to many other universities. This experience led to his 1991 book America Against America.