This lack of freedom stunts any real debate on the future of China. Thinking
is still circumscribed. There are areas that are still taboo or where
intellectuals can only hint at what they mean. In three vital spheres, this
is deeply damaging to China’s national interest. The first is foreign
policy. China has evolved in less than a generation into a world power, one
now placed alongside America in a newly minted category of G2. But the
country is uncertain how to exercise this power. And as long as the party
restricts the debate to a known ideological framework, it cannot mobilise
China’s vast intellectual capabilities to address this. The second area,
intellectual property, is equally damaged. As long as there is no real
freedom to question the foundations of society, China will not produce
innovators. It will be able to copy and develop, but not to outstrip
competitors and set the framework for the world. And the third area is the
legitimate assertion of religious and regional identities alongside Chinese
citizenship.