“Leaders Must Deliver, Meet Demands of the People” - Zhang Weiwei | Endgame #268

Summary

In this interview, Fudan University professor Zhang Weiwei argues that China’s development offers an alternative to Western political and economic models. He emphasizes long-term planning, state capacity, merit-based leadership selection, and governments’ ability to improve people’s lives. These are Zhang’s interpretations and claims, rather than an independently verified assessment.

Zhang’s Early Life and Education

Zhang recalls experiencing the Cultural Revolution, when university entrance exams were suspended and he worked for three years as an apprentice in a Shanghai jade-carving factory. After Deng Xiaoping restored the exams in 1977, Zhang entered Fudan University to study English and American literature. He later became a senior interpreter for Chinese leaders, worked for the United Nations in Geneva, and studied China’s development after travelling to more than 100 countries.

Deng Xiaoping’s Long-Term Vision

Zhang says Deng impressed him with his ability to plan decades ahead. He highlights Deng’s focus on anticipating the infrastructure and energy needs of economic growth, as well as his principle of “seeking truth from facts”—assessing conditions pragmatically rather than relying on ideological doctrine.

Zhang also invokes the Confucian image of people as water that can either carry or overturn a boat, arguing that leaders must understand and respond to public needs.

China’s Economic Transformation

Zhang credits the Mao era with laying foundations through literacy campaigns, public health, land reform, women’s emancipation, and heavy industry, while acknowledging that China remained very poor when Deng took power. He describes the post-1978 period as “leapfrog development,” in which China rapidly built up industries it had previously missed and became a major force in telecommunications, digital technology, and emerging fields such as AI. He cites a technology report as evidence of China’s progress.

Education, Talent, and Competition

Zhang says Deng’s decision to send students abroad—despite fears of a brain drain—ultimately helped China, as many students returned with expertise. He presents China’s longstanding emphasis on science and technology, demanding entrance examinations, and intense domestic competition as drivers of innovation and entrepreneurship. He rejects claims that Chinese innovation is merely imitation or rote learning.

China’s Political and Economic Model

Zhang describes China’s system as combining political selection with elections, with officials assessed through experience and performance at lower levels of government. Economically, he characterizes China as a “socialist market economy,” where state planning and infrastructure investment work alongside private businesses and market competition. He uses digital connectivity and the development of electric vehicles as examples of this combination.

Good Governance Over Political Labels

Zhang challenges the common framing of politics as “democracy versus autocracy.” In his view, elections are only one procedure and should be judged by whether a system delivers good governance. He cites Deng’s criteria of political stability, rising living standards and social unity, and continued productivity growth.

Zhang says China’s plans involve extensive consultation and concrete targets, while criticizing some Western political systems for prioritizing election cycles and campaign rhetoric over long-term delivery.

Critique of Western Political Systems

Zhang argues that universal suffrage and multiparty competition do not automatically produce development, and says political cycles can disrupt long-term plans. He identifies populism, the influence of money and social media on elections, and the concentration of power among capital and lobbying groups as weaknesses in the US system.

He also criticizes attempts to export Western political models, saying countries should develop institutions suited to their own histories and conditions.

China, ASEAN, and the Global South

The discussion presents China–ASEAN cooperation as an opportunity for shared development, particularly through infrastructure investment, technology transfer, and education. Zhang describes the Belt and Road Initiative as a platform for joint development and stresses that technology transfer should be mutually beneficial and supported by local training and expertise. He also highlights vocational education tied to projects, such as training Lao railway workers.

The host stresses Southeast Asia’s educational disparities and the importance of investing in teachers and higher education.

A More Multipolar World

Zhang sees globalization as increasingly contested in the West, while saying China remains committed to it. He portrays China–ASEAN relations as resting on development, security cooperation, and cultural dialogue, and suggests that a broader civilizational approach could help a multipolar world manage differences.

On China–India relations, he supports closer cooperation but attributes the difficulty largely to India’s political and media environment and unresolved border tensions; these are Zhang’s own assessments.

US–China Relations and Strategic Rivalry

Zhang rejects the idea that conflict between rising and established powers is inevitable, arguing that Chinese political thought favors compromise and “win-win” outcomes. At the same time, he calls Taiwan a fundamental Chinese “red line” and warns that a confrontation would have severe consequences.

He predicts that the US will eventually accept China’s rise, describing its response as moving from denial and anger toward bargaining and acceptance.

Deng’s Three Pivotal Decisions

At the close, Zhang identifies three decisions he believes shaped modern China:

1. Launching reform and opening in 1978.
2. Responding forcefully to the 1989 Tiananmen crisis, which he presents as preventing the collapse of the state.
3. Conducting Deng’s 1992 southern tour, which reaffirmed market mechanisms as tools that could be used within “socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

Presenters and Contributors

• Gita Wirjawan: Host
• Professor Zhang Weiwei: Guest