China Wakes and from Beirut to Jerusalem

Comparison and Contrast:

China Wakes and From Beirut to Jerusalem

The authors of the two books being reviewed present a very clear and concise view of their prospective areas of study. Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn do a particularly good job in China Wakes of communicating the extreme situations plaguing China in such a way that even an American with little to no background in the area can get an accurate view of what is happening in the country. Thomas L. Friedman's work is also commendable in that he takes an area that even the residents of neighboring countries do not fully comprehend and gives the completely detached reader an intimate familiarity which borders on an affinity with the place.

The two areas covered have such differing systems of government and political motivations from not only each other, but also from America's as well. I feel as though both the books give their readers an adequate understanding of how each region's method of governance work. The detail in which each author explains things regarding government and politics is very effective, and I feel as though one can walk away from either book with more than an adequate base of knowledge of "how things are done" in China, Lebanon, and Israel.

In China Wakes, it becomes clear that the intense corruption prevalent in China is a major factor in getting anything bureaucratic completed. While China is technically governed by the Chinese Communist Party, and has been for the last few decades, Kristof makes it exceedingly obvious that there are a multitude of other factors at work beyond typical socialist or communist views. The in-depth analysis of guanxi and how it affects political decisions and influences the lives of everyone, from the lowliest of peasants to the 'emperor' Deng Xiaoping, helps the reader immensely in understanding a fundamental aspect of Chinese society. China Wakes does a fantastic job of delving into the different levels of political power in China. From small townships and their local bullies to the Politburo and the CCP's organizational hierarchy, everything seems to be covered in this account.

The two factors in day-to-day business getting done in China seem to be Guanxi and payoffs, or corruption. Kristof makes a good point about why corruption is so rampant in China when he describes the differences between a corrupt police officer in New York or Beijing. The corrupt cop in New York might make twice his normal salary if he were to accept illegal payoffs, while his counterpart in Beijing could potentially make twenty to thirty times his regular pay. These kinds of monetary incentives are usually enough to swing any would-be fair public servant in China into a corrupted blight on the system. The fact that the corruption is so widespread is heavily hit upon by Kristof. He gives accounts of peasants making $45 a year being forced to pay $300 fees to pay for services they will never see or for taxes that go straight into an official's pocket. Bribes are a huge part of Chinese politics. With enough of them, one can apparently get away with even the most corrupt ventures for at least a while, and most problems can be solved indefinitely. While it can not solve everything, bribing leads to the building of guanxi which is true power in China.

As stated, guanxi is the real driving force in China; loosely translated into favors and influence. This goes far beyond the American system of 'it is not what you know but who you know' and becomes another form of gross corruption. Kristof again does a fantastic job of giving accounts from the very bottom all the way to the top of instances where guanxi affects people's lives in China. A perfect example of how incredibly important guanxi is in Chinese society is Deng Xiaoping himself. While he never actually held the highest positions in the Chinese Communist Party, he was undeniably the 'emperor' of china after Mao passed away. The reason for Deng's widespread power was his political influence and the number of favors owed to him by other powerful people. His guanxi was strong enough that he effectively ran China without even being in the position of power. China Wakes also covers smaller issues where guanxi swings things for people one way or another. Getting a child into a good school is literally impossible in China without a certain level of guanxi to get the gears moving, and for a peasant family to legally have a second child, they had better have someone owe them some favors, or be prepared to pay ridiculous penalties. The thing about guanxi is that it can overcome nearly any problem in China. There is seemingly no law in the entire country that cannot be sidestepped or completely ignored with the right amount of influence and connections.

From Beirut to Jerusalem does a great job in detailing how things are run in the two areas covered. Taking a city as clouded and cryptic as Beirut and providing any kind of understanding to a typical American reader in just a couple of chapters would seem to be a monumental task, but Friedman stepped up to the challenge quite adequately. The references he uses to describe the city as a 'kaleidoscope' and a 'house of mirrors' paint a very realistic picture in the mind of the reader as to what business is like in Lebanon. Friedman employs a method of having the reader identify with the Israeli troops and government in their lack of understanding of Beirut which makes the attempt at comprehending such a murky system of government a little more palatable. Prior to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Beirut, Israel had a completely inadequate understanding of Lebanon's capital, so too does the reader when he begins reading about Friedman's experiences there. The 'let's have coffee' and 'Hama Rules' ideas presented by Friedman are as good a way of explaining how the system in Beirut works as any I could conjure up. Without getting too muddled in detail, he covers how and why the Muslim and Christian factions are at odds and the place each has in the control of the city.

From Beirut to Jerusalem also takes the time to briefly explain what the typical Arabic person perceives as a required response to things happening to him. The use of many different analogies such as 'going for the egg and the shell' help the reader with an understanding of the radical differences between America and the Arabic Nations. The Hama Rules chapter definitely gives some insight into not just Beirut, but also Syria, Iraq, and much of the Middle East. Friedman uses Hama Rules to describe actions taken by not only those countries, but Israel as well, as in the case where an Israeli general

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