As I listened to a Chinese official talk about western democracy, I felt I was witnessing a role reversal. I’m very used to hearing western governments calling for political reform in authoritarian regimes. Here I was, on a cold afternoon at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, receiving Chinese wisdom. If American democracy produces Donald Trump and British democracy takes the UK out of the EU, the official said, then it follows that western democracy needs reform.
聽到一位中國官員談論西方民主時,我感覺像是看到了角色反轉。我習慣聽到西方政府呼吁威權主義政權開展政治改革。但在上周的一個寒冷的下午,在達沃斯世界經濟論壇(World Economic Forum)上,我卻領教了中國智慧。那位官員說,如果美國民主催生了唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)、英國民主讓英國離開了歐盟(EU),那就說明西方民主需要改革。