Confucius Says

By Howard G. Chua-Eoan

PACIFIC DESTINY: INSIDE ASIA TODAY

by Robert Elegant

Crown; 533 pages; $24.95

A sociopolitical primer on Asia may seem anachronistic when the world is entranced by the promise of a democratized Central Europe. But Robert Elegant's anecdote-encrusted new book is a reminder that the West, rejuvenated though it may be by freedom, still faces its major challenge in the aggressive economies of Asia. Culled from the author's more than two decades as a correspondent for Newsweek and the Los Angeles Times, Pacific Destiny is a cautionary travelogue that weaves expertise with exotica to analyze why the unquestioned superiority of the West -- and the U.S. in particular -- is passing.

The preachings of the liberal West, Elegant argues, are undermined by the effectiveness of authoritarian Neo-Confucianism from Seoul to Tokyo to Taipei, from Beijing to Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur. Japan's energy comes from a disciplined adherence to the hierarchical loyalties demanded by the ancient philosophy. In Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew reigns as a benevolent but stern patriarch. South Korea prospers because of -- not in spite of -- Park Chung Hee, the dictator who laid the foundations for his country's phenomenal economic expansion. Though Elegant does not quite make the argument, the Confucian ethic, with its emphasis on obedience, can justify the Tiananmen crackdown. Deng Xiaoping is said to have modeled China's reforms on Park's repressive yet ultimately fruitful policies.

Elegant, who draws on the tradition of the John Gunther series that included | Inside Europe Today, is tirelessly entertaining. His recollection of Indonesia under the demagogic strongman Sukarno casts history as comedy. His chapter on Australia is a lesson on how charm, wit and isolationism cannot save a country from the effects of economic lassitude. Nevertheless, the book is flawed by a few of the author's quirks. He tries to imbue various transliterations of China's capital with poetry, alternating "Peking" (for the citadel redolent with the imperial past) with "Beijing" (for the colorless communist metropolis). It is an unnecessarily romantic subtlety made more confusing by Elegant's use of idiosyncratic spellings of Chinese names. He also provides one questionable historical interpretation of a 17th century border treaty between Moscow and Beijing. But these are quibbles. Those who wish to divine the shape of the future will do well to look to Asia and into Pacific Destiny.