Sick Men of Asia

A psychologist explains why Chinese people only have the mental age of a six-month-old
By Zheping Huang

According to Sigmund Freud, a human being’s psychosexual development has five stages: the oral, the anal, the phallic, the latent, and the genital. 

During the oral stage spanning from birth until the age of one, an infant satisfies its desires simply by putting all sorts of things into its mouth, whether it’s a pencil or its mother’s breast.
Most Chinese people have never developed beyond the oral stage of Freud’s theory and have the mental age of a six-month-old, argues psychologist Wu Zhihong. 

In his recently published book Nation of Giant Infants, Wu takes the psychological viewpoint to explain a wide range of social problems in China, including mama’s boys, tensions between mothers and daughter-in-laws, and suicides of left-behind rural kids. 

He claims that the “giant infant dream” is deeply rooted in the Chinese tradition of collectivism and filial piety.
“Most Chinese people are infants in search of their mothers,” Wu writes.

“Nation of Giant Infants”

The 42-year-old provides mental health counseling in major Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, and is the author of a series of best-sellers on psychology. 

Prior to that, he wrote a column for the Guangzhou Daily newspaper. 

Published in December, his latest work Nation of Giant Infants has recently been removed from Chinese bookshops, drawing speculation among Chinese internet users that censors banned the book because it is offensive to Chinese beliefs and traditions.
The publisher, Zhejiang People’s Publishing House, pulled Wu’s book off shelves in both physical and online stores in China in mid-February. 

A staffer with the publisher said that the removal was due to bad print quality when asked by Quartz, but didn’t say when the book will become available again. 

An assistant to Wu said the publisher told her the same.
But that doesn’t explain why Luogic Talkshow, a popular online talkshow *(link in Chinese) produced by former TV anchor Luo Zhenyu, scrapped an episode on Wu’s book. 

Some online discussions about the removal of the book have also been deleted (link in Chinese).
According to Wu, infants younger than six months live in symbiosis with their mothers. 

They can’t tell themselves apart from the outside world. 

They want everything to follow their own rules. 

And they don’t recognize anything between the two extremes of good and bad. 

Wu says these three characteristics summarize the majority of Chinese people.
For example, in an extended family in China, Wu writes, “Your business is my business, mine is also yours. I take too much responsibility for you, and you take too much for me. Otherwise you are a jerk, and I’ll feel guilty.” 

He notes in a recent interview (link in Chinese) that the phenomenon is reflected in a new hit Chinese dating show, where parents pick partners for their kids.
From a social perspective, Wu notes, Chinese people place a strong emphasis on collectivism because they can’t live on their own, both spiritually and materially speaking. 

They rely on guanxi, or personal connections, to get things done. 

Meanwhile, they prefer to let powerful figures such as their parents or the government make decisions for them.
Wu also challenges the Chinese government. 

He says mothers dominate Chinese families, while fathers are often missing in the role of a parent—just like Chinese rulers are absent in the role of government.
“Good fathers rarely exist, and more often they are bastards having desires,” he writes. 

“If Chinese families can have more powerful, good fathers, our politics will perhaps be more powerful and honest.”

Sino-American Crony Capitalism

• Trump princelings profit from political links just like China and Vietnam
• Trump's son-in-law, who is named senior White House advisor to incoming president, is involved in property deals with China's Anbang Insurance

By Johan Nylander
Connections are king in Trump Dynasty. Donald Trump speaks as his son-in-law Jared Kushner and his daughter Ivanka listen. 

The Chinese business elite’s close ties with the top leaders of the Communist Party of China is an open secret. 

Now, is the White House playing the same game of crony capitalism?
Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has just been appointed as senior advisor to the incoming president while he at the same time is tangled up in business deals with one of China’s most shadowy businessmen.
The 36-year-old, heir to his family’s privately held multibillion-dollar real estate firm Kushner Companies, has been working for several months on a Manhattan property deal with Chinese investment giant Anbang Insurance. 

Kushner has met with its chairman Wu Xiaohui after the presidential election, The New York Times exposed during the weekend.
Anbang first came to global fame when it bought New York’s legendary Waldorf Astoria hotel in 2014 for almost US$2 billion. 

Wu, on the other hand, has been walking in the shadows and has never given a single press conference. 

Anbang, founded in 2004 and today one of the country’s most influential companies, is also being described as having close ties to the Communist Party and an impressive list of politically connected directors.
The negotiations between Kushner and Wu are reportedly about Anbang’s investment in the redevelopment of 666 Fifth Avenue, which the Times calls “the fading crown jewel of the Kushner family real-estate empire.” 

It writes:
“On the night of Nov. 16, a group of executives gathered in a private dining room of the restaurant La Chine at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Midtown Manhattan. 

The table was laden with Chinese delicacies and $2,100 bottles of Château Lafite Rothschild. 

At one end sat Wu Xiaohui, the chairman of the Waldorf’s owner, Anbang Insurance Group, a Chinese financial behemoth with estimated assets of $285 billion and an ownership structure shrouded in mystery. 

Close by sat Jared Kushner, a major New York real estate investor whose father-in-law, Donald J. Trump, had just been elected president of the United States.”
During the meeting, Wu expressed his desire to meet with the president-elect. 

The report also described how Kushner has emerged as an important figure for some of America’s most complicated diplomatic relationships, including with China.
This week it emerged that Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, will become a senior White House advisor working on trade and the Middle East.
It’s a rare case of a close presidential family member taking a major job, and was labeled by Norman Eisen, who served as Barack Obama’s government ethics lawyer, as a “murky legal landscape” when it came to the anti-nepotism law.
“The Donald Trump administration may show the world that America can do princelings profiting from political connections at least as well as China can,” commented Bill Bishop, a Washington-based expert on Chinese business and author of the influential Sinocism China Newsletter.
“Beijing must be confused by the mixed signals coming from Trump world. On the one hand, there are threats of sanctions and a trade war, and several personnel appointments to make those threats look real. On the other hand, his son-in-law and top advisor is reliant on Chinese investors and still negotiating deals with them since the election.”
Reuters said Kushner would resign from his positions as chief executive of the Kushner Companies and as publisher of the New York Observer newspaper, as well as divest from any interests in the New York Observer, Thrive Capital, the 666 Fifth Avenue office building in midtown Manhattan and any foreign investments.
The Times article, however, highlighted the “ethical thicket he would have to navigate while advising his father-in-law on policy that could affect his bottom line.”
Founded in 2004, Anbang Insurance Group has grown rapidly and has total assets exceeding 800 billion yuan (US$115 billion), according to its website. 

Its ownership structure is however foggy. 

Wu does not appear in Anbang’s filings as an owner, but The New York Times said in September that a number of the company’s shareholders are relatives and acquaintances of the chairman.
Wu Xiaohui is considered to have substantial political ties, and is married to the granddaughter of Deng Xiaoping, China’s former de facto leader. 

He also has close links to Chen Xiaolu, son of Chen Yi, a top military commander under Mao Zedong.
“In many ways, Anbang and Mr Wu appear to be archetypal products of China’s mix of freewheeling capitalism and Communist Party dominance, a formula that has fueled nearly four decades of untrammeled growth,” the Times said.
If the true ownership of Anbang is unknown, who was Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor actually trying to strike a deal with?