Seeing China clearly: A personal transformation

When I was growing up in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s, I was subjected to all manner of negative talk about China. Political and economic criticism abounded at that time in the US.

As a child and adolescent, my political awareness was limited, but I was certainly sensitive to the broad message－"red China" was bad. Communism was bad. The "Iron Curtain" was real in Asia, just as it was in the Soviet Union. People in China were oppressed and held down by their government. China was a totalitarian state that violated inborn human rights.

Such were the things I was taught. These ideas were embedded so deeply that when I entered China to work as an adult in 2013, I passed the guards at the Beijing airport with a sense of nervous trepidation. I wondered if this was a one-way gate that I could enter but never reverse. I wondered if I would ever see these guards again in my rear-view mirror on the way out.

In a way, I have indeed been trapped, but not in the way I had expected. Living in China for more than half a decade has opened my mind and taught me the value of people-to-people connections. It has taught me to be skeptical about political rhetoric and to make my own decisions. Real-life experience has enriched my understanding beyond measure.

Looking back on my transformation, I can see that I was trapped in China, but not by the police. I've been trapped－"captured" might be a better word－by the fundamental goodness of the people, whose ethics are rooted in an ancient language and philosophy. It's a country making an effort.

Sure, it's true that China continues to face some serious challenges. This is true of any major country. Designing and governing a society is like herding cats. Glorious visions may sometimes fall short in the implementation phase.

But the same also applies to my native country. Like China, the US does some things right, but not everything. There are no exceptions, it seems, to this rule of imperfection. Perfection will be forever elusive in a world run by humans. The US is no utopia. There is injustice and poverty, greed and inequality－triumphs, to be sure, but also abuses in the span of its history.

So I find the current state of relations between China and the US to be highly instructive about the human condition. If the two political systems were mapped in a Venn diagram－a graphic depiction of data sets showing commonalities and differences－you would find considerable overlap. But you would also find valid divergences born of circumstance.

The Chinese people have adopted a system that works given their particular national conditions－historically, ethically, economically, socially and politically. And the country has a remarkably flexible approach: It has adopted many things of value from others, but applied them within a framework compatible with Chinese culture and tradition. The approach has worked, as the country is clearly on the rise.

While it's true that some in the West want to hold China down, that sentiment is far from universal. Many Westerners want China to succeed. For me, seeing the country up close for a number of years has drawn me to the latter camp. This is mainly because I can now move past the inflammatory political rhetoric of my youth and recognize that the Chinese people are fundamentally good, that they're in search of a better life (as I am) and that they share the values of love, family, peace, decency and respect for others that I hold dear. All in all, we have more in common than we have differences. Just look at the Venn diagram.

This is surely something that can be built upon to smooth out the bumps in today's big-power competition.

Contact the writer at randy@chinadaily.com.cn