China's stance towards the West has evolved from a nascent rejection in 1996 to possessing significant strategic leverage, evident in its forceful countermeasures against Western claims and sanctions, and a shift in Western leaders visiting Beijing.
Guangzhou's Huadu District has upgraded its United Front platform to better serve intellectuals, establishing a new 'Talent and Wisdom Station' and 'Intellectuals' Home' to foster talent and development. The initiative aims to integrate the wisdom of non-Party intellectuals into the province's high-quality development.
A mural project in Rio de Janeiro, called NegroMuro or BlackWall, aims to commemorate Afro-Brazilian history and figures, with over 80 murals across the city.
You can perhaps judge the rise and decline of a society by the quality of its public intellectuals. In the last century, the United States had some genuinely great thinkers such as Walter Lippmann and Hannah Arendt who addressed a literate public while producing enduring works that can still be read today with great benefit. Now you have people like Francis Fukuyama and Sam Harris who may be studied in the future more as a symptom of their society. A podcast between the two last month went viral...
