DM Monitoring
SANTIAGO: The Chinese Dream, a new book presented by Chilean economist Osvaldo Rosales and virtually launched Thursday, focuses on China’s economic and cultural history, providing an in-depth understanding while seeking to demolish some stereotypes about the nation.
The work, which examines “how China sees itself and how we Westerners make mistakes when interpreting it”– according to the author — is being co-published by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
“China made a triple transition in the most populous economy on the planet. From a closed economy to an open one, from a planned one to a market one, and from a rural society to an urban society,” said Rosales, former director of ECLAC’s International Trade and Integration Division.
In his book, Rosales, a specialist in international relations as well as in Chinese culture and politics, urges readers to understand the “Chinese dream,” which guides the political and economic decisions of the nation.
This work “emphasizes the need to achieve a more balanced, more inclusive development, more respectful of the environment,” said ECLAC’s Executive Secretary Alicia Barcena during the virtual meeting.
Constanza Jorquera, an academic at the School of Political Science at the Diego Portales University in Chile, described the work as “a Latin American vision regarding how to conceive of China and relate to it,” noting that Latin America must reevaluate how it views the country.
Those who attended the launch agreed that the author’s work presents a refined diagnosis of the Chinese experience, with a vast historical perspective that culminates in a substantive contribution to knowledge.
Jointly organized by the Permanent Forum of Foreign Policy, the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, the Institute of International Studies at the University of Chile, and the ECLAC, the launch attracted hundreds of online guests.