Many observers in Europe and especially Asia view the repeated shut downs of the U.S. government and the current inability of the U.S. House of Representatives to maintain regular order as a severe problem. Failure to move ahead with regular business, including government funding, is even convincing many Americans that we may not have the best form of government.
Asian countries in particular are concerned that their governments maintain a level of social order that allows things to move forward smoothly. —-Good schools. —-Reliable transportation. —-Honest businesses and banking. If government does its many jobs effectively, the public can go ahead and lead a normal life that wastes little time on politics. But what they see in the U.S. building over recent years, is “chaos.” To them, that is the major sign of poor government.
Asian words do not exactly translate one-to-one with English. But they view our political disorder with a variety of expressions close to our English word “chaos.” Korean, Japanese and Chinese cultures are all based on personal responsibilities (not rights) and obligations to family and community (not selfish individualism). Asian languages are closely evolved and the Chinese terms show their perspective.
Chaos is written 动荡 [dòngdàng] and reflects “turmoil” or “turbulence.” Since there is a series of related actions that occur, it can be extended to 连锁动荡 [liánsuǒ dòngdàng] or “chain turmoil” or “chain turbulence.” This indicates how confusion and bad actions cause situations to get even worse.
Since the chaos in our U.S. Congress involves a dispute between two parties (and even within both parties), the term 政治撕裂 [zhèngzhì sī liè] indicates “political divide” or “political rift” and 政治四分五裂 [zhèngzhì sìfēnwǔliè] indicates “political split” or “political fragmentation.” Lack of unity within a group is a serious fault. And “splittism,” a term we do not use, is considered particularly bad and which they witnessed when some of the January 6th rioters at the American capitol were waving the flags of Southern secession.
When politicians attempt to use one set of tactics or issues in order to accomplish other actions, this is seen as 政治博弈 [zhèngzhì bóyì] or “political gaming.”
The modern era of U.S. government shutdowns are a fairly recent phenomenon, having begun in November 14-19, 1995. But their acceleration and severity has drawn renewed worry and criticism from both Asia and Europe.
One of our former strengths was the “soft power” provided by very large number of foreign students who came to U.S. universities to study, experience our political culture and return to their home country. Today that is a negative. In Yingyi Ma’s 2020 book “Ambitious and Anxious: How Chinese College Students Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education,” she describes how for four decades our universities exposed foreign students to American values during their undergraduate or graduate education. In one interview, a Chinese student explained “Everything about the U.S. was ideal to me.” But she was soon disillusioned, stating: “I realize that ‘one person, one vote’ is not necessarily a good system at all” and explains “because people are not as informed, and may not make good judgements.”
The perceptions of democracy held by residents of their country is measured annually by the Alliance of Democracies in their 2003 Democracy Perception Index. Recently released, the latest surveys revealed that only 54 percent of U.S. citizens believed the U.S. was democratic. In contrast, China does hold elections for local offices, and “73 percent of Chinese citizens viewed their country as a democracy.”
“When asked to choose if their government usually acts in the interest of a ‘small group of people’ or ‘most people,’ 58 percent of U.S. citizens responded that the government serves the few. In China, on the other hand, only 10 percent believed the same.”
Because America spends more on military than the next ten countries combined, and U.S. purchasing power along with China supports much of the world’s economy, the rest of the world has good reason to be concerned with our political “chaos.”