Thanks for that. Very insightful. Sycophants like Bell — I do think he is one — need to be countered, and Nathan (and you) very nicely brings out the main issues hidden behind the smokescreen puffed up by Bell (& Co)! Too many American and Western China scholars refrain from such criticism, partly I believe because they are stuck in the strange old idea that China is a poor “third world country” and one must sympathize with its government regardless, because the enemy of your enemy (= for US academics, often one’s own imperialistic US government) somehow must be your friend. In my view, the more powerful a world power, the more deserving of scrutiny from independent intellectual voices.
ps I do wonder what’s happened with China studies at Princeton if they make someone like Bell the editor of their China books in the way as Nathan says! That is quite shocking.
Magnus Fiskesjö <magnus.fiskesjo@cornell.edu>