ARE THE CHICOMS CLOSET CONSERVATIVES???

TIME Magazine quotes a few paragraphs from a state-run Chinese newspaper, Global Times, which reminded me of Edmund Burke:

"In general, democracy has a strong appeal because of the successful models in the West. But whether the system is applicable in other countries is in question, as more and more unsuccessful examples arise.

In the West, democracy is not only a political system, but a way of life. Yet some emerging democracies in Asia and Africa are taking hit after hit from street-level clamor

Democracy is still far away for Tunisia and Egypt. The success of a democracy takes concrete foundations in economy, education and social issues."

Burke emphasized that society is composed of vast matrix of connections that cannot be easily changed ,as this excerpt from The Liberty Fund entry suggests:

In contrast to the French experiment, Burke lauded the English Constitution as the political embodiment of continuity rather than rationalism. It ensured respect for traditional institutions as opposed to speculative ventures, upheld customary rights rather than abstractions, and maintained a sense of the sacred that recognized the basic imperfection of human beings. Burke accepted the existence of human nature but distrusted attempts to understand it on purely rational grounds. He saw man as an imperfect creature subject to the whims of passion who required the constraints of evolved and customary institutions. Political society could not change this basic fact, and only magnified the need for moral constraints. Burke had little faith in the ability of philosophy or reason to solve society's problems. He thus viewed the removal of the traditional and time-tested brakes on human passions as a dangerous and dubious undertaking.