The Rise of China and the End of the World As We Know It
by Arif Dirlik @ubc.ca
Arif Dirlik 是土耳其裔美國歷史學家，主要研究方向是現代中國、後殖民主義、全球化，《The Rise of China and the End of the World As We Know It》是 Dirlik 在加拿大英屬哥倫比亞大學的演講，內容和他的一篇同名論文相同。
Dirlik 的態度是西方先進社會是剝削中國勞動力的從犯：
…the same advanced capitalist societies have been complicit in the social and environmental consequences of the PRC’s development both as direct participants in production and as indirect beneficiaries in consumption
Dirlik 點名了美國的蘋果和其供應商、臺灣的富士康、加拿大和澳洲的礦業公司直接或間接的參與了對中國勞動力的剝削和對環境的污染:
Foreign corporations from the celebrated Apple and its supplier, Taiwan’s Foxconn, to Canadian and Australian mining corporations have been involved directly in the exploitation of Chinese labor and the destruction of the environment.
改革開放後的中華人民共和國被視爲能拯救衰退中資本主義的救星，其貌似無止盡的消費能力和本土市場是主要原因：
The postrevolutionary PRC draws its admirers most prominently from those who view it as a bottomless reservoir of consumers to nourish a faltering capitalism in perpetual crisis.
中國國內學者和政治評論員對西方批判的常見反擊是，西方社會在崛起的過程中也幹過很多見不得人的事情，其中不少到了現代都還在持續。Dirlik 認爲這個說法忽略了歷史的意義在於讓我們避免犯同樣的錯誤、而不是正當化當下的行爲：
They ignore, however, that the point is to learn from the past in order not to repeat the mistakes and crimes of others, not to use their example to justify similar mistakes and crimes at the present.
和冷戰時期的蘇聯不同，中國領導人對現有世界的挑戰並不是提出一個比資本主義更好的意識形態，而是簡單的用 “錢” 來施加影響力。
Unlike during the Cold War, the claims PRC leaders make on the existing world order are justified not by the offer of an alternative to capitalism or even an alternative ideology. What they have to offer by way of persuasion is simply—and quite openly—“money.
中國這種經濟和政治勢力的結合並不獨特，印度、土耳其也是類似的情形。在這個時代經濟考量凌駕在所有政治考量之上，市場思維主導了所有的社會和政治思考架構：
The alliance between economic and political power to the detriment of populations at large is not limited to the PRC, or self-professed antidemocratic authoritarian societies alone, India under Narendra Modi and Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdo an being prime examples. Democracy is in peril in its original homelands in Europe and North America. We live in times when economic development trumps all other considerations, and the market paradigm rules social and political thinking, no matter what the cost in democracy, human rights, and social justice.
從這個角度來看，中國崛起和其隨之帶來的問題，其根本並不在與中國沒有和西方完全整合，而是西方資本主義系統本身的崩壞：
There seems to be a prevalent assumption among policymakers that the
problems of the PRC, and the world, will be resolved if the PRC is more thoroughly integrated into the capitalist world-system. It is a misleading as- sumption, as the fundamental problems of the world lie not with the PRC but the capitalist world-system itself. Inthe fundamental problems of the world lie not with the PRC but the capitalist world-system itself.
我們應該積極拋棄當前 GDP 導向的發展體系，以更偏重長期人類福祉的體系取而代之。如果人類現在傷害環境的發展速度持續下去，世界毀滅很可能就近在眼前了。
…the most urgent task is to reconsider the developmentalism that has become a “global faith” and explore alternative paths of development where progress is measured not by the GDP figures that drive states, or the profits that drive the corporate economy, but by achievements in long-term human welfare and security.