Xinhua Headlines:
Time for West to drop bias and better understand China, observers say
/Source: Xinhua/|/2019-11-01 20:20:07/|/Editor: huaxia/
/http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-11/01/c_138521474.htm
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It's time for West to drop lens of bias, better understand China: U.S.
observers
*//https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAQ11qgcmNA*
by Xinhua writers Luo Jingjing, Yang Shilong
NEW YORK, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- There is a compelling need for the United
States and the broader West, particularly journalists, researchers and
politicians, to shed their biases and misconceptions and better
understand China given its role as an indispensable global player, say
observers.
NEGATIVE NARRATIVE
Peter Walker, senior partner emeritus at McKinsey & Company, a U.S.
worldwide management consulting firm, has made over 80 trips to China in
the past 15 years. He spent a lot of time with Chinese executives,
government officials as well as the general public.
"What I discovered was the people were happy, they were proud, they were
energized. The government officials I met genuinely wanted to do the
right thing for the people on a long-term basis," Walker told Xinhua in
a recent interview.
Yet back in the United States, what he read in the mainstream media
about China was exactly the opposite. "They talk about how unhappy and
oppressed the people are, and how the government officials are basically
corrupt, and their only real goal is to stay in power as opposed to help
the people."
The dominant narrative about China was so negative in the United States
that the veteran business consultant decided to write a book to "get the
story out there."
In his book "Powerful, Different, Equal: Overcoming the Misconceptions
and Differences Between China and the US," Walker said he wrote "what I
regard as an honest story from my own experience," and did it "in a way
that doesn't come across as either pro-America or pro-China."
He said there are "two models that are completely grounded in their own
unique history and culture."
James Heimowitz, president of New York City-based China Institute, who
has 45 years of living experience in China, agreed.
"Do we think that Americans really understand how the system works in
China? ... I don't think they understand well enough," Heimowitz told
Xinhua.
Founded in 1926, China Institute is the oldest bicultural, non-profit
organization in the United States with an exclusive focus on China.
Heimowitz said that lives of his Chinese friends and their children have
improved over decades ago, and they feel a sense of "pride" in the
trajectory of their country.
"China now is a place that has gleaming infrastructure. That's the envy
of the world," he said. "It's a place that is dynamic, it's a place
that's energetic. It's a place that knows how to have respect for its
history. But it's not trapped in living in the past. And it's still
looking to the future."
"I don't think anybody can do anything but stand in awe of that
success," said Heimowitz, referring to China's lifting of over 800
million people out of poverty over the past several decades.
BUILDING TRUST
"My central concern about the way that Americans see China (is) trust. I
don't think there's enough trust. And there's really isn't enough
knowledge (about China)," said Heimowitz when asked about his take on
the harsh rhetoric by some U.S. politicians against China.
"And you don't build trust by talking about policies. You build trust by
increasing people's comfort through their knowledge of each other," he
said. "Honestly, I don't know that there's a lot that China can do. I
actually think America has to do more."
"China has put in the effort to try to begin to ... get insight and
learn from America in a much deeper, more profound way than Americans
have found the need to do for China," he said.
Given that the United States has been a leading world economy for many
years, Walker said, it is "not surprising" that a lot of Americans just
have "no interest in China" until it became a real economic powerhouse.
Sarwar Kashmeri, adjunct professor of political science at Norwich
University, attributed China's unprecedented rapid development to its
"own way of governing -- socialism with Chinese characteristics."
"So I believe a lot of the theories that have been used to analyze China
have been very self-serving, not by the government, but by the experts
who were trying to predict what China would be like," Kashmeri said.
It should be understandable that China has its own way of governing, he
said. "As far as I know, it is not interested in taking its way and
changing every country in the world."
Western media and researchers have to do "an adequate job" in
understanding China's domestic and foreign policies, said Kashmeri.
Having spent years researching and writing about the China-proposed Belt
and Road Initiative (BRI), he found that what has been written about it
"is not very accurate."
The professor has just published his own book on the BRI, using simple
language and hard facts with an aim to help Americans understand it "as
much as they should."
"I believe Americans need to better understand China," Heimowitz said,
"because if we don't, I think we're headed for very dangerous times."
BEYOND ZERO-SUM
Time has come for the United States to get beyond the zero-sum game
mentality in its dealings with China, address its misconceptions and
work with it to tackle global issues for humanity's benefit, said the
observers.
"China has risen, it will continue to rise. And this is a fact, a
reality that America and the rest of the world need to come to grip
with," said Heimowitz.
"The United States is not mentally ready to accept the idea that we
could be number two," said Walker. "I don't think China pays a lot of
attention to who is the winner, the loser, and a lot of that goes back
to the different values between East and West."
"So in the East, it's always harmony and balance and win-win; in the
United States it's winners-losers, heaven-hell, good-evil," he said. "We
grew up in a dualistic model, therefore, we cannot think about the
United States and China coexist(ing) in a constructive relationship."
Walker said it is a "hopeless task" for the United States to try to
contain China. "Can they set China back for a couple of years? Maybe.
But China inevitably is going to produce an economy that's stronger than
the U.S. economy," he said.
"I believe that China and the United States ... are going to be the two
most important countries to occupy this planet," Heimowitz said.
"We're not going to agree on everything. We have different set of
values, different systems of governance, different cultures, different
histories," he said. "But that doesn't mean that we can't collaborate.
In fact, it means we must collaborate." Enditem
