A Response to Wang Wen: Why China Should Look Inward

Mr. Wang, I read your piece in the New York Times, “A View From China on How Perceptions of America Have Changed,” about your disillusionment with my country. Your generation of Chinese might have looked up to America, but it is natural that younger generations are looking inward to explore Chinese history and identity. I don’t think that this shift is because American media is censored in China. While leading U.S. platforms are blocked in China, Chinese audiences have exposure to American ideas through other channels. Many of the most popular books and movies in China are not Chinese. On Douban.com, one of China’s leading review sites, three out of the four top-ranked movies are American. On the top-ten list of most popular books, only half are Chinese. You write about how much enthusiasm there was about the United States. I can relate, in my own partial way, to your story about your time as a university student in Gansu. In 2009, I purchased a copy of Plato’s “Republic” in Lanzhou, and I recall the tremendous curiosity about America that accompanied my travels in northwestern China over the years. You are right to point out that American society is often tumultuous and boisterous. We are a nation that values free speech and debate, personal mobility and exploration, and defending our values and our allies when necessary.Many Chinese may still be drawn to “that shining beacon” of America, to quote your words, but due to censorship and fear of government retaliation they cannot say so publicly. In a totalitarian society, nobody can know what people think, because people keep quiet — hence Beijing’s frequent concerns about rumors. Many Chinese have chosen to make America their home, or seek to do so. America’s ability to welcome and absorb immigrants is almost unique in world history. And they have reason to seek to flee their homeland — harsh lockdowns, restrictions on personal freedom, corruption, abuses against Christians, Muslims, Tibetans, and Mongols, and the list goes on and on.China, though, goes far beyond its government’s horrific abuses. China is a civilization with a way of doing things. That way is deeply ingrained, and far predates communism. Some Chinese understandably seek to strengthen their families, their communities, and their nation — in China. And it is healthy and honorable for people to draw meaning from their national heritage, and to work to strengthen their home nation. I applaud their efforts.Out of those efforts to rebuild China from within can emerge the future of China. That future can be one of a great nation, a proud civilization, and a prosperous country. Many critics of China in the United States struggle to see that future —they are so focused on China’s near-term military aggression, economic coercion, and constraints on basic personal freedoms. Yet a brighter future is possible for China.How the Republic of China on Taiwan will fit into that future, neither you nor I can know. Nations have a way of choosing their own trajectories in the long term. It is possible that a future China will peacefully include both sides of the Taiwan Strait — whether under the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of China, or some other future Chinese government.That future need not include much warfare. You describe widespread discomfort in China with the role the American military has played in recent decades. For most of the past few centuries, China’s military was not a major part of the nation, and a future China could similarly be a country whose identity and efforts are not tied to military activity.In the meantime, as these ideas are debated openly in free societies and quietly elsewhere, many in China will continue to explore their roots and lay the groundwork for the future of China. The greatness of that future China will depend only on the Chinese people — not on attacking America and our allies. As a longtime student of China, I wish the Chinese people well on their important journey.

A Response to Wang Wen: Why China Should Look Inward

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