BEIJING – My generation of Chinese looks up to the United States.
When I was a college student in Northwest China in the late 1990s, my friends and I watched Voice of America shortwave broadcasts, honing our English while updating our English. US and world news. We flocked to packed lecture halls whenever an American professor visited on campus.
It was a thrilling time. China is emerging from isolationism and poverty, and as we look to the future, we have studied democracy, the market economy, equality, and other ideals that make America great. In fact, we couldn’t apply them all because of China’s conditions, but our lives changed as we readjusted our economy to the US blueprint.
Decades earlier, a reformist scholar said that even the moon in the United States is rounder than in China. My schoolmate and I wanted to believe it.
But after years of watching America’s wars abroad, reckless economic policies, and destructive partisanship – culminating in last year’s infamous attack on the US Capitol – many Chinese The nation, myself included, could barely recognize that bright lighthouse anymore.
However, like the relationship between our countries get worse, the United States blamed us. Foreign Minister Antony Blinken did so in May, said that China was “undermining” the rules-based world order and could not be relied on to “change its trajectory”.
I have doubts about some of my country’s policies. And I realized that some of the criticism of my government’s policies was justified. But Americans must also admit that American behavior hardly sets a good example.
The change in attitude of the Chinese people is not the same. But when the US-led NATO forces were confused Bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1999 during the Kosovo war, our idolatry of America began to wane. Three people were killed in that attack and 20 were injured. Two years later, an American spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet collided in the South China Sea, causing a Chinese pilot died. These incidents may be relatively minor for Americans, but they shock us. We have largely avoided foreign wars and are not used to our citizens dying in conflicts involving other nations. The shift in perception accelerated rapidly as the 2000s began and more and more Chinese had televisions. We witnessed the carnage of America’s catastrophic involvement in Iraq, launched in 2003 on pretendwas shown in our home.
Following in the footsteps of his predecessors, President Barack Obama announced a arms sales chain went to Taiwan and embarked on the so-called pivot to Asia, which we saw as an effort rally our Asian neighbors against us. President Donald Trump declared a destructive trade war against us, and Chinese citizens were as shocked as anyone when a pro-Trump mob stormed the citadel of American democracy on the 6th. January 2021. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last week was only more Chinese people are disappointedWho considered it a violation? America’s Commitment on Taiwan.
Critics of China in the US need to realize that such US actions are causing results in China that even the US does not want.
It is no coincidence that China’s military spending – a source of interest in Washington for many years – started to increase in the early 2000s after the Belgrade bombing and the plane crash. It quickly took off after the war in Iraq. How far ahead is the US military? have been compared with ours. China’s past weakness is disastrous: Western powers attacked and forced China to hand over its territory in the 1800s, and Brutal Invasion of Japan in the 20th century kill millions of people.
American officials certainly want China to follow the path of American liberalism. But in contrast to my college days, the view of Chinese academics on the United States has changed markedly. Chinese government officials have consulted me about the benefits of the US capital market and other economic concepts. I am now called upon to discuss the cautionary tales of the United States, such as the factors that led to the financial crisis. We have sought to learn from the successes of the United States; now we study its mistakes so we can avoid them.
The perception that the United States is a dangerous force in the world has also filtered into the attitudes of the Chinese public. In 2020, I commented on a Chinese TV show that we still have a lot to learn from the US – and was attacked on Chinese social media. I still hold my position, but now I’m more careful in speaking positively about the United States. When I do, I preface it with a criticism.
Chinese students still want to study in US universities but are extremely afraid of US gun violence, anti-Asian attacks or labeled as a spy. They are sent with ominous advice: Don’t stray off campus, watch what you say, avoid conflict.
And even though China is tired with our country’s tough no-Covid policy, the gloom of America Record the pandemic only strengthen the support of the Chinese public for our government.
To be clear: China also needs to change. It needs to be more open to dialogue with the United States, refrain from using US problems as an excuse for slow reform, and respond more calmly and constructively to the indicators. quotes from the United States on issues such as trade policy and human rights.
But even though we don’t enjoy the same rights as Americans, many people in China like where we are now.
In the late 1970s, China was exhausted and traumatized by the devastation and hardship caused by the Cultural Revolution, which nearly destroyed us. Deng Xiaoping initiated reforms that brought stability and helped raise the 800 million people Get out of poverty. We have achieved spectacularly increase income and life expectancy and stay away from foreign wars. Strict firearm regulations allow us to walk down any street in the country at night with virtually no fear of harm. When we look at the large number of US pandemics, gun violence, political divisions, and the attack on the US Capitol, it only reminds the Chinese people of our own turbulent past. we have left behind.
None of this is meant to gloat over America’s troubles; A strong, stable, and responsible United States is good for the world. China still has a lot to learn from the US, and we have a lot in common. We drove Chinese-made Fords and Teslas, washed our hair with Procter & Gamble shampoo, and sipped coffee at Starbucks. Solving some of the planet’s biggest problems requires us to work together.
But that doesn’t mean following America over the cliff.
Wang Wen (@WangwenR) is the executive director of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Research, an advisory institution at China’s Renmin University. He is the author of “The Long Journey of a Great Power,” an analysis of China’s re-emergence as a global power. He is a Communist Party member and former opinion editor of the Global Times, an affiliate of the Communist Party’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily.
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