The Global South Views America after January 6 Part 2

Paul Rodell - Georgia Southern University

The January 6 Attempted Coup in the United States as Seen from the Philippines

Filipinos were uniformly stunned by the events of January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. since Philippine-American ties have been extremely close from the turn of the nineteenth century to the present. These ties are not only political and economic, but social-cultural and include a large Filipino immigrant population in the United States. All the while, Filipinos have seen the American system as a model of democracy and stability that has allowed the North American behemoth to surmount all obstacles. Opposition to their own current regime (and the past rule of Ferdinand Marcos) has even been rooted in a deeply American influenced model of political decency and good governance. This perspective may be flawed in reality but it has continued to exert a powerful influence on the Filipino perspective of what governance should be. That model has now been fundamentally tarnished and the respondents from left, centrist and even rightist perspectives expressed deep concern for America's future. Their concern has also been heightened by the January 6 coup's implications for their country's relationship with its Chinese neighbor and the possibility for US assistance in standing up to Beijing. In short, the Philippine reaction may be characterized as resulting from the negation of historically conditioned assumptions of American democracy along with Philippine contemporary domestic and international interests.

Yi-Sun - University of San Diego

From Admiration to Disillusionment: Chinese Intellectuals’ Reactions to the Capital Riot and the State of American Democracy

Informal yet in-depth individual conversations with nine academics in China reveal a common theme regarding Chinese intellectuals’ reactions to not only the January 6, 2020 Riot in Washington but also the general contour of American democracy in recent years. An interesting, though not entirely surprising, consensus has emerged; that is, while critical of the political recentralization and renewed social control in China, they have concluded that the American-style democracy does not befit China. Largely long-time admirers of the American political infrastructure with its inherent separation of power, these academics have become increasingly disillusioned with the sanctity of this system. Their reactions are nearly eerily reminiscent of those of the May 4th generation a century ago, when the disenchantment of Chinese youth with the Wilsonian ideals made many amenable to the influence of communism.

Assefaw Bariagaber - Seton-Hall University

Commentator