Ren Xiao: Why are the "Zhihua factions" in the United States becoming more and more silent?

Source: Global Times

On May 27, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger celebrated his 100th birthday. In July 1971, Kissinger, then the US President's National Security Adviser, paid a secret visit to China, and after communication and negotiation, he and the Chinese side facilitated the then US President Nixon's "ice-breaking journey" to China in 1972. The "cross-Pacific handshake" that shocked the world directly promoted the improvement of Sino-US relations and laid the foundation for the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States.

In the more than 50 years since, the "Zhihua faction" has become a very important group and an indispensable force in the development of U.S.-China relations. However, standing in the 21st century today, under the ecological influence of fierce political party rivalry and increasingly anti-China atmosphere in the United States, the "Zhihua faction" has become more and more silent.

The American "Zhihua School" is emerging from the modern generation

In April this year, Robert Roth (Chinese named Lu Bobin), a senior China expert in the United States and a researcher at the Fairbank Research Center at Harvard University, came to Shanghai for a short-term research visit. During this period, he also went to Nanjing and Xiamen for exchanges or lectures. According to what he told this writer, he came to China this time to see today's China. In other words, coming to China again after more than three years, he wanted to feel how Chinese society had changed during that time. Around the same time, William Kirby, director of the Fairbank Research Center at Harvard University and senior distinguished achievement chair professor (Chinese William Kirby), also visited Shanghai. Last year, I and he met at Stanford University for a conversation, and we agreed that the academic circles of China and the United States must maintain exchanges and must not be "decoupled".

The visit of these two well-known American scholars to China just after the new crown epidemic and international travel has not yet fully returned to normal reflects the desire of "knowledgeable Chinese scholars" in the United States to accurately grasp today's China.

The author's most intuitive feeling is that there are not too many American "Zhihua schools" like this today, but too few.

During the conversation, Lu Bobin talked about the current situation of some "knowledgeable Chinese" people in Washington. For example, former US Ambassador to China Rui Xiaojian, two former directors of the John Thornton China Center of the Brookings Institution Lieberthal (Chinese name Kenneth Lieberthal) and Jonathan Pollack, and David Lampton, former director of the Department of China Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Some of them are getting older, and some are retiring one after another.

Although Shi Wen, Ke Qingsheng, Dong Yunchang, Luo Sigao, and others who are similar in age or about 60 years old to the above-mentioned "Zhihua School" scholars are still active, Lu Bobin believes that the "Zhihua School" in the United States is undergoing a modern replacement.

According to the author's observation during the study tour in the United States, a group of American "Zhihua schools" who are currently about 40 years old have emerged as Jessica Chen Weiss, a professor of political science at Cornell University, and O. Smith, a researcher at the Institute of International Studies at Stanford University. Oriana Skylar Mastro and Fiona Cunningham, assistant professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania (she's a little younger). A little younger and has some impact, it's not yet visible.

The new "McCarthyism" is at work

As one of the important foundations of people-to-people exchanges and mutual understanding between China and the United States, the current situation is worrying from the perspective of Chinese and American students studying in each other's countries.

According to data recently given by U.S. Ambassador to China Burns, there are currently about 295,000 Chinese students studying in the United States, while there are only 350 American students studying in China, which he said is "unwise and unhealthy." Burns said he has experienced a "decoupling" between Chinese and American societies in the past three years and hopes to see more American students study in China and more Americans travel to China.

Due to the new crown epidemic and multiple factors, the number of Chinese students studying in the United States has declined in recent years, but it has not declined much. However, it is worth noting that the number of American students studying in China has declined significantly. During the Obama administration, the United States formulated a "100,000 strong" plan, hoping to increase the number of American students in China to 100,000 within a few years. However, the implementation of this plan is not satisfactory, and in practice it is far from achieving this goal. In 2019, there were still 11,000 American students in China, but now it has fallen to only a few hundred, reaching the lowest level since the 80s. With such a small base of American students in China, how many American scholars will be able to work on China studies in the future? That's a pretty clear truth.

The author believes that although this situation is affected by the new crown epidemic, it has a lot to do with the political atmosphere in the United States. In the past six years, China has been seriously demonized in the United States, with "trade wars" and "technology wars" occurring one after another, and Sino-US relations have continued to decline or even fall into a vicious spiral. On China-related issues, a new atmosphere of "McCarthyism" has emerged in the United States.

In the 50s of the last century, US Senator Joseph McCarthy "called the wind and rain" on Capitol Hill, investigated the "enemy" and created tension. "McCarthyism" was once rampant. Under such circumstances, Zhihua's diplomats Xie Weisi and Davis were forced to leave the State Department, and Zhihua's scholar Owen Lattimore had to leave his country to settle in Britain to avoid trouble, and China scholar Fairbank was also attacked for this. And so on and so forth. History has proven that all those bad words are trumped-up accusations and accusations. Today, in the United States in the 21st century, a new atmosphere of "McCarthyism" (a coincidence with the current speaker of the House of Representatives' name is McCarthy) has caused many people to shudder for fear of being attacked.

Not long ago, the author contacted a scholar in Shanghai to stay for a week at the relevant international studies school of a university in Washington, D.C., at our own expense. Surprisingly, the other party did not respond. This clearly reflects the US people's worries, and it is better to do more than less, for fear of causing trouble. People who knew China better did not dare to make an objective voice. In this way, it greatly hinders the formation of a realistic understanding of China. The political factors of the United States have penetrated and affected people-to-people exchanges between China and the United States, which has become an issue that cannot be ignored. The Global Times recently reported that in the recent high-level dialogue between China and the United States, China has asked the United States to remove unreasonable restrictions and interference in Sino-US people-to-people exchanges, and work with China to carry out more exchanges between the two countries and enhance mutual understanding between the two peoples.

Correcting "Distorted Perception of China" through Communication

At the same time, a group of so-called "strategists" (strategists) have emerged in the United States, whose common denominator is that they do not Chinese or study domestic and foreign affairs, but proceed from the political ideas of great powers they believe in, and carry out corresponding reasoning. They think that they "have the truth" and take for granted that China is also in their "control". In fact, what they have reasoned about based on some "theories" is nothing more than a distorted perception of China. This is reflected in the following misconceptions:

First, it believes that China wants to change or even overthrow the existing international order out of dissatisfaction with the international status quo.

Second, China wants to replace the United States in the world. China is believed to have a long-term (and some even "secret") strategic goal of eventually replacing U.S. hegemony by increasing its power.

Third, China believes that the United States is in decline. In this case, China is rising, just enough to fill the vacuum left by the United States.

These are all very fundamental understandings that shape the current US China policy, but they are all wrong. If the two sides do not contact and communicate, these misconceptions will become more and more reinforced. There are different levels and aspects of mutual contact and communication, which may affect each other, including the understanding of Zhihua people, whose roles may include but are not limited to the following:

First, form a more objective cognition. Because they know China better, their Chinese narrative is also relatively more objective. We don't necessarily want them to say "nice things" about China, but we want them to portray an objective image of China in the United States. Including China's remaining problems and shortcomings, they are also welcome to point them out objectively to help us do better.

Second, the bond of connection. The much-popular talk of "decoupling" is a dangerous way of thinking in our time. Under the leadership of this thinking, it may lead to the disconnection between China and the United States from "have" to "nothing" in all aspects. This kind of thinking and behavior is very harmful. We must not allow it to dominate the relationship now and in the future. Maintaining contact and communication between the research communities of the two countries is an important aspect.

Third, the bridge of communication. Judging from the situation in the past many years, whenever there are difficulties and crises in Sino-US relations, people will see the figure of the National Committee on US-China Relations, and its role should not be underestimated. The organization has full-time staff, Lampton, Holden, Orlens and others have served as presidents, and vice president Bai Lijuan has witnessed almost the entire process of Sino-US relations since Nixon's visit to China, which to a large extent reflects the continuity of the organization's work. The work of the Commission over the years reflects the role that these individuals have played and can play.

Do yourself well and let "Zhihua" become "Youhua"

There is an ideological problem that needs to be solved here - some people start with "knowing China" and gradually become "anti-China". When this problem is mentioned, many people probably have a shadow in their minds. This shadow is Matthew Pottinger (Chinese name Boming). He will Chinese that he was stationed in China as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and had some so-called "personal experience" during that time. Until he entered the Trump administration and left the White House, he always cherished China, had a very negative view, and even became a vanguard of demonizing China. This is regrettable. But does this mean that some Americans and even foreigners should not be allowed to learn Chinese? Of course not. After all, the above phenomenon is an individual, and no one can rule out the occurrence of this situation. If foreigners who are studying Chinese are "screened" for this reason, it is because they have choked on food, and in fact they cannot do it.

So, how do you see some foreigners studying Chinese at language teaching institutions run in Taiwan? Of course, this involves some kind of competition between the two sides of the strait, and this kind of "competition" is inevitable before the motherland is reunified. However, this problem should be viewed in the long run, and it is generally a good thing that foreigners can make efforts to learn Chinese difficult language. Fundamentally, Chinese mainland is "big", and the "root" of Chinese culture is also here. If foreigners like Chinese culture, they will definitely come to visit Chinese mainland and make friends, and there will be opportunities to get closer to us. Therefore, we can be more confident and calm, while promoting Chinese culture around the world.

In the final analysis, we still have to do our own things well, and further create a credible, lovely and respectable charming China, prosperous, civilized, friendly, and beautiful... In that way, more foreigners will surely go from pursuing "knowing China" to becoming "friendly China". (The author is a professor and director of the China Diplomacy Research Center of Fudan University)