Editing Thomas L. Friedman (section)

===China===
In September 2009, Friedman wrote an article praising China's [[one-party state|one-party]] [[autocracy]], saying that China's leaders are "boosting gasoline prices" and "overtaking us in electric cars, solar power, energy efficiency, batteries, nuclear power and wind power."<ref name="12:10 EDT">{{cite magazine|author=EDT |url=http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Tom-Friedman-hails-China_s-one-party-autocracy-8229077-59075192.html |title=New York Times columnist Tom Friedman hails China's one-party autocracy |magazine=Washington Examiner |date=September 13, 2009 |access-date=May 15, 2010 }}{{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> The article was in turn subject to critical analysis: [[Matt Lewis (journalist)|Matt Lewis]] who wrote, "Friedman's apparent wish for a 'benign' dictator is utopian, inasmuch as it ignores Lord Acton's warning that 'absolute power corrupts absolutely.'"<ref>{{cite web|author=Matt Lewis|url=http://www.politicsdaily.com/2011/01/20/tom-friedman-praises-chinas-one-party-autocracy-again/|title=Tom Friedman, in Praising China's 'One-Party Autocracy,' Just Doesn't Get It|work=Politics Daily |date=January 20, 2011|access-date=October 26, 2012|archive-date=December 23, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201223031627/https://www.huffpost.com/|url-status=live}}</ref> and [[William Easterly]] who quotes Friedman's one-party autocracy assertions<ref>{{cite web|author=William Easterly|url=http://williameasterly.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/benevolent-autocrats-easterly-2nd-draft.pdf|title=Benevolent Autocrats|publisher=William Easterly|date=May 2011|pages=2|access-date=October 26, 2012|archive-date=December 23, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201223031613/https://williameasterly.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/benevolent-autocrats-easterly-2nd-draft.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> as part of his academic paper in which he concluded that, "Formal theory and evidence provides little or no basis on which to believe the benevolent autocrat story" and that, "economists should retain their traditional skepticism for stories that have little good theory or empirics to support them."<ref>{{cite web|author=William Easterly|url=http://williameasterly.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/benevolent-autocrats-easterly-2nd-draft.pdf|title=Benevolent Autocrats|publisher=William Easterly|date=May 2011|pages=44|access-date=October 26, 2012|archive-date=December 23, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201223031624/https://williameasterly.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/benevolent-autocrats-easterly-2nd-draft.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> However, in a July 2012 article in the NYT,<ref name="12:10 EDT"/> he also wrote that the current Chinese leadership has not used its surging economic growth to also introduce gradual political reform and that, "Corruption is as bad as ever, institutionalized transparency and rule of law remain weak and consensual politics nonexistent."<ref>{{cite news|author=Thomas Friedman|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/opinion/friedman-what-the-locusts-ate.html?src=me&ref=general&_r=0|title=What the Locusts Ate|date=June 5, 2012|access-date=October 26, 2012|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|archive-date=December 23, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201223031629/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/opinion/friedman-what-the-locusts-ate.html?src=me&ref=general&_r=0|url-status=live}}</ref> When asked if he had "China envy" during a Fresh Dialogues interview, Friedman replied, "You detect the envy of someone who wants his own government to act democratically with the same effectiveness that China can do autocratically."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.freshdialogues.com/2009/09/16/tom-friedman-china-envy-explained/ |title=Fresh Dialogues Interview with Alison van Diggelen |website=Freshdialogues.com |date=September 16, 2009 |access-date=May 15, 2010 |archive-date=December 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201223031633/https://www.freshdialogues.com/2009/09/16/tom-friedman-china-envy-explained/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Likewise, in a 2011 interview with the [[BBC]] Friedman says that he wants his children to live in a world where "there's a strong America counterbalancing a strong and thriving China, and not one where you have a strong and rising China and an America that is uncertain, weak and unable to project power economically and militarily it historically did."<ref>{{YouTube|ws3Yr6JjZyk|BBC Two: The Chinese Are Coming: Episode 2: The Americas (Part 4 of 4), quote can be heard from 11:50 to 12:15 }}{{dead link|date=October 2011}}</ref>

Friedman's work is popular in China. His book ''The World is Flat'' was a bestseller in the country, although criticism of China in the book was removed when it was published in the country.<ref name="economist">{{cite news|title=The role of Thomas Friedman|url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/analects/2013/05/chinese-dream-0|newspaper=The Economist|date=May 6, 2013|access-date=July 13, 2017|archive-date=October 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028145059/https://www.economist.com/blogs/analects/2013/05/chinese-dream-0|url-status=live}}</ref> A translated version of his article from ''The New York Times'', "China Needs Its Own Dream", has been credited with popularizing the phrase "[[Chinese Dream]]" in China, a term that was later adopted as a slogan by [[Xi Jinping]].<ref name="economist"/> Friedman, in the magazine ''[[Foreign Policy]]'', has attributed the phrase to Peggy Liu and her environmental NGO JUCCCE.<ref name=FP>{{cite news|last=Fish|first=Isaac Stone|title=Thomas Friedman: I only deserve partial credit for coining the 'Chinese dream'|url=http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/05/03/thomas_friedman_i_only_deserve_partial_credit_for_coining_the_chinese_dream|newspaper=Foreign Policy|date=May 3, 2013|access-date=May 30, 2013|archive-date=June 7, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130607020405/http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/05/03/thomas_friedman_i_only_deserve_partial_credit_for_coining_the_chinese_dream|url-status=live}}</ref>

In September 2020, Friedman told CNBC that "Trump is not the American president America deserves, in my opinion. But he definitely is the American president China deserved. We needed to have a president who was going to call the game with China. And Trump has done it, with I would say more grit and toughness than any of his predecessors. I give him credit for that."<ref>{{cite news |title=Trump is the U.S. president that China deserves, says New York Times' Thomas Friedman |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/01/new-york-times-columnist-thomas-friedman-donald-trump-is-us-president-china-deserves.html |work=CNBC |date=September 1, 2020}}</ref> In November the same year, Friedman observed that Xi Jinping had brought about "an end to four decades of steady integration of China’s economy with the West".<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/01/opinion/china-united-states-trade-economy.html |title=How China Lost America |author=Thomas Friedman |date=2022-11-01 |work=New York Times }}</ref>