Upon my return to China and reflecting on a recent visit to Washington DC during the spring festival, last month, I’ve become more clear-sighted about my fellow Americans as a U.S. citizen and more enlightened on the anti-China sentiments that exist there and in many other parts of the world.
Before rushing to judgement by concluding that many Americans are pro-war, pro-hegemony and anti-China, we should take a closer look at why they have been perceived in such a manner to outsiders. While speaking with Americans in Washington D.C., I noticed a stark contrast between how ordinary US citizens view China and how the so-called ‘China experts’ in the US talk about the country.
Let’s view the matter from motives. Many ‘China experts’ based in Washington DC hold a financial incentive to uphold an anti-China values system. Many US foreign policy think tanks, based in the USA, have received funding from US defense contractors to spark public hysteria in order to encourage US Congress to vote in favor of larger US Defense budgets.
Meanwhile, the American education system places little emphasis on teaching world history, world geography and a majority of Americans don’t even hold a US Passport and show little curiosity to travel beyond their national borders.
For many Americans, China is just too far away to visit. Their idea of exploring China is to eat at a Chinese restaurant.
Actually, I was one of those Americans, who long ago was anti-China and feared that a rising China remained an imminent threat to peace and prosperity for our world. Nonetheless, I found myself in the ironic position as an American who has lived and worked in China since October 2010 and now hope that more Chinese and Americans can embrace better China-U.S. bilateral relations and trade ties.
I’m still a Republican in China and avid supporter of U.S. President Donald J. Trump and “America First” principles. It’s “America First” for U.S. citizens, but we should also allow “China First” for Chinese citizens. The Chinese have every right to be patriotic for their homeland as we Americans are for our beloved nation.
But patriotism should not suggest Americans seek to wage a war against China, nor should we think that patriotic Chinese want to invade the USA and their allied nations. True patriotism is about loving your country but also promoting peace, prosperity and harmony for one and all.
And just like myself, people can change their minds about US-China ties. Last August and by a chance encounter, I met David Wallace, president of the Fair Energy Foundation, a think tank promoting free market values for the energy markets.
He’s a typical American Republican registered voter. He loves America and not ashamed to boast about it. And when first meeting me, I told him that I live and work in China.
His reaction was typical as well. He looked shocked, but he wanted to show good manners in front of my wife, a Chinese citizen and our son and we had engaged in a respectful conversation.
I met him again on my recent U.S. trip and I joked, “when telling you I work in China, you look so startled that I thought you were going to have a heart attack right in front of my family.” He laughed and confessed that he was indeed worried about me at that time.
Yet we continued our dialogue after our first meeting by having frequent chats on Social Media. We would agree to disagree and at other moments, we discovered areas of common interest. I explained that China’s economy is large and since he supports boosting US oil & gas exports, his think tank should learn more about China.
Accordingly on January 31, I met Wallace in Washington DC at the Capitol Hill Club, where many Republican Party Congress members, senators and government officials gather to relax. He served as a gracious host and we were joined by a few friends with Chinese ancestry.
We gave speeches to address US-China relations and while listening to him - I thought it interesting that his entire audience, with the exception of myself, were standing inside the Eisenhower Room at the Capitol Hill Club and they were all Chinese.
This man was anti-China his entire life while growing up in a working class neighborhood of Baltimore. Nonetheless, he looked sincerely happy to tell the Chinese that he supports stronger US-China energy trade ties. He saw the benefits and now stands eager to promote deeper and more profitable US-China economic cooperation.
And that’s important to note. Americans are not really anti-China, they just need to get a better understanding of the country and to discover the win-win benefits of a China-US partnership for peace and prosperity in our world.
(Tom Pauken II., author of US vs. China: From Trade Wars to Reciprocal Deal, AFAI Senior Fellow, Geopolitical Consultant based in Beijing, China)
X: @tmcgregochina
Donate to AFAI — Strengthen America’s role in Asia!
Comments