Thorsten Pattberg

“ Russell’s analysis of China is completed by a promise, namely that the Chinese civilization alone has the power to easily supersede - economically and intellectually - all European states combined if only they adopt Western science to defend themselves against aggression but otherwise stay faithful to their own fine civilization (Russell, 1922) . For those who did not believe in China’s potential ‘other’ civilization, Russell had this warning:
The Chinese demand Western science. But they do not demand the adoption of the Western philosophy of life. ”

“ It is power that makes one benevolent; that same kind of fair-minded atmosphere of tolerance, academic freedom, and mutual dependency during the Ming Dynasty would have been difficult to achieve in little Europe, letting alone for its native Jesuits to negotiate with the clerics back in Vatican City, if one recalls Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) who happened to spend the latter part of his life under the Inquisitions’ house arrest. ”

“ It is well-known fact that the liking - you may call it the taste for the Chinese - grows upon the foreigner the longer he lives in this country. (Gu Hongming, 1922)
Despite the achievements of the Jesuits in the 17th century in China, one should not merely attribute their successes to the curiosity of the Chinese intellectuals, or the expertise and advanced scientific training of the Catholic Church, but perhaps more so to the cosmopolitan mind of China’s emperors. ”