> r from over 2000 years ago to bolster a claim about a
> modern government.
It may be specious reasoning, but I read justifications for a number of things coming out of China that appeal to their long history. E.g. Country X was part of China X hundred years ago, therefore it has always been a part of China and we are just reclaiming what is ours.
That is fair too, China has more history than any other country, and only few cultures can claim to be as old.
When asked about democracy most Chinese I have spoken to refer to their last hundreds years of history, which is filled with all kinds of turmoil. When thinking of managing a billion people stability is an easy concept to appeal to.
It always jars me (I was a Chinese major as an undergraduate) when people refer to "5,000 years of Chinese history," because that is wrong by 2,000 years. China only has 3,000 years of history, and the actual history of China, as for most countries, includes accounts of pre-historical legends that go back before accurate, recorded history.
It is correct (other comments in this thread) that Chinese political philosophers mostly came up with rationales for strong central authority rather than rationales for individual liberty like the Greek and Roman political philosophers, but that was a bug rather than a feature.
