On August 9, 2022, the New York Times published an article by Wang Wen, executive dean of the Chongyang Institute of Finance at Chinese Min University, discussing "why Chinese no longer look up to the United States." Observer Network is authorized by the author to publish Chinese edition of it.
Screenshot of the listing page
【Text/Wang Wen】
My generation Chinese looked up to America.
In the late 1990s, when I was a university student in Northwest China, I listened to the shortwave radio of the Voice of America every day with my classmates, practiced English and tracked the news in the United States and the world. Whenever there were visiting American professors on campus, we flocked to the crowded lecture hall.
It was an exciting time. China is struggling to get out of isolation and poverty. When we look to the future, we admire America's ideas of democracy, market economy, and equality. As China's economy recalibrated along the American blueprint, Chinese lives did change a lot, even though Chinese couldn't fully embrace the American way.
A few decades earlier, a reformist scholar had said that the moon in the United States was rounder than in China. My classmates and I believed this.
But after years of observing America's wars abroad, reckless economic policies, and senseless partisanship — which culminated in the disgraceful farce on Capitol Hill last year — ordinary Chinese like me could barely tell the difference between America's shining beacons.
However, as relations between China and the United States deteriorate, the United States continues to smear China. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken recently did just that. He said in May that China was "undermining" the rules-based world order and could not be expected to "change its course."
I sometimes have doubts about my own country's policies, and I can also feel that the Chinese government's policies are constantly adapting in the face of criticism. But Americans must understand that American behavior is unlikely to set a good example for China.
In 1999, U.S.-led NATO forces mistakenly bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during the Kosovo War, killing three people and wounding 20 others in the attack. Chinese's cult of the United States began to wane. Two years later, an American spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet collided in the South China Sea, killing a Chinese pilot. These incidents were relatively small in the eyes of the United States, but they completely shocked Chinese.
For decades, China has largely avoided foreign wars and is not accustomed to Chinese citizens dying in conflicts with other countries. Since the 21st century, however, more and more Chinese have owned television and witnessed at home the catastrophic 2003 massacre in Iraq launched by the United States under false pretenses.
In 2008, when the U.S. subprime mortgage fiasco triggered the global financial crisis, China had to go all out to defend itself from the onslaught of American greed. China was forced to implement a massive stimulus package, but the economy still suffered a severe shock, with millions of Chinese unemployed.
Soon after, then-President Barack Obama announced the first round of arms sales to Taiwan, declaring a return to Asia, but in the eyes of Chinese, it was an attempt to unite with neighboring countries to oppose China. Donald Trump has declared a devastating trade war. Chinese citizens, like people around the world, were shocked by the onslaught of a pro-Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Congress as the "castle of democracy" on January 6, 2021. Last week, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan further angered many Chinese, seeing it as U.S. intervention in China's sovereignty.
Those who criticize China need to understand that the consequences of similar behavior in China must not be what the United States wants.
It is no accident that Chinese military spending — which has been a concern for Washington for years — began to rise around 2000 after the bombing and plane collision of embassies in Yugoslavia. After the destructive power of the United States was exposed in the Iraq War, China's military spending grew rapidly. You know, China's weaknesses in the past were disastrous: the Western powers oppressed China in the 19th century and forced China to pay reparations for land; The brutal Japanese invasions of the 20th century killed millions of Chinese.
The U.S. government undoubtedly wants China to follow the path of American liberalism. But compared to my college days, the tone of Chinese academia's research on the United States has shifted from imitation to vigilance. In the past, Chinese government departments have consulted on the benefits of U.S. capital markets and other economic concepts to China, but now they are more focused on American lessons, such as the factors that led to the financial crisis. We used to want to learn from America's successes, and now we want to learn from America how to circumvent mistakes.
The image of the United States as a dangerous force in the world has also permeated the minds of the Chinese public. In 2020 I said on a Chinese TV show that we still had a lot to learn from the United States and ended up being attacked on some Chinese social media. I stick to my point of view, but I'm more cautious when talking about the U.S. head-on.
Chinese students still want to study at U.S. universities, but are very afraid of U.S. gun violence, anti-Asian attacks, or being labeled spies. Before they went abroad, they were advised not to leave the campus, pay attention to words and deeds, and stay away from disputes.
Previously, a Chinese woman was suddenly attacked by a white man
Despite the chinese public's strict "zero-clearing policy," the U.S. own traumatic experience of the pandemic has only strengthened Chinese trust in the government.
To be clear, China also needs to change. China needs to be more open to dialogue with the United States, avoid using the U.S. issue as an excuse to slow down the pace of reform, and respond more calmly and constructively to U.S. criticism on issues such as trade policy and human rights.
But even if Chinese don't enjoy some rights like Americans, many Chinese prefer where they are now.
In the late 1970s, China was devastated by the devastation caused by the Cultural Revolution and nearly collapsed. Deng Xiaoping's reforms brought stability and lifted 800 million people out of poverty. The Chinese system has guaranteed a sharp increase in income and life expectancy and has insulated China from foreign wars. Strict gun control ensures that Chinese can walk on any street at night with little fear of getting hurt. The mass death toll, gun violence, political divisions and attacks on the U.S. Capitol only remind Chinese of the turmoil of the past.
The rebuttal of the United States is not intended to be a gloating at America's current predicament — that a strong, well-functioning, and responsible America is good for the world. Chinese still have a lot to learn from the United States, and China and the United States have a lot in common. Chinese drove the homegrown Ford and Tesla, washed their hair with Procter & Gamble shampoo, and drank coffee at Starbucks. Solving the biggest problems on the planet will require the joint efforts of China and the United States.
But that doesn't mean China has to follow the United States off a cliff.
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