1、 1 Thinking from the Heart! An American investment banker and a longtime China observer, Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn became a household name in China as the author of The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin, a bestseller in 2005 demonstrating the life of Chinas former president. T
2、he success of this book facilitated his subsequent work in this country. His experiences, accumulated over four years of crisscrossing the nation and dozens of interviews with officials at all levels, have been published in his new book: How Chinas Leaders Think: The Inside Story of Chinas Reform an
3、d What This Means for the Future. Dr. Kuhn visited China for the first time back in the early 1980s. After that, his frequent trips to the country gave him the opportunity to get to know this land and its people more closely. The more places he visited, the more Chinese he interviewed, the more he c
4、ould see just how much the rest of the world misunderstood China. Kuhn gradually realized that China is a complex country and thus couldnt be properly interpreted through the method of a “blind man feeling an elephant.” People in the West tend to think of China in simplistic terms: No freedom of spe
5、ech, media censorship, 2 human rights issues and lack of religious freedoms. But each story has its complexity. They also tend to generalize Chinese leaders by assuming that they all think alike. In his new book, Dr. Kuhn presents the diversity of the Chinese leadership and how their individual phil
6、osophies are revealed across different areas. He interviewed over 100 Chinese officials, including high-ranking officials like Vice President Xi Jinping, Vice Premier Li Keqiang, provincial and municipal governors, as well as leading figures in business, trade, finance, science, the military, religi
7、on, culture, media and sports. “To some extent, each leader had his own reality. I do my best to explore the real depth in people. For me, one of the best methods is to visit Chinese leaders as many times as possible, both top leaders and local officials. It is only then that you can better understa
8、nd China and its people.” “ What I do is to display all parts of the elephant as though we are all blind.” He tried to present a real picture of China ?C from the perspective of its economic imbalances, migrant workers, gender equality, bankruptcy, corruption, pollution, global conflicts, and its ro
9、le in the global financial crisis ?C all its problems and successes. Dr. Kuhn brought together these leaders and gave them a platform to speak to the world, to enable the world to 3 see their diversity. Knowing that he was at times dealing with sensitive subjects, he approached his writing in a very
10、 serious manner, making sure that every word ?C even every punctuation mark ?C was accurate. “You may disa gree with what these leaders say, but consider first what theyre really saying,” Dr. Kuhn cautions. He refused to give his conclusions on each topic but rather believes that readers can find th
11、eir own. He did sum up his impressions of the countrys lea ders in the first part of the book: pride, stability, responsibility and vision. Dr. Kuhn painstakingly traces the political philosophies of the Chinese leadership. To him, it is important to tell the stories of reform, but it is more import
12、ant to personalize the reform, to understand the mindsets of the key players that have initiated and pushed forward the nations progress over the last three decades. So he began with Deng Xiaoping Theory, moved onto Jiang Zemins “Three Represents,” and fleshed out Hu J intaos “Scientific Outlook on
13、Development.” “It is important to understand Chinas current policies in terms of political directions,” Kuhn believed. “They give the whole story coherence.” Through interviews Dr. Kuhn explores the profound changes that have taken place in Chinas politics, economy, education, science and many other fields, combined with the changing attitudes of its 4 people, and their conceptual refinement.
