Obama, When Praising Yourself Need You Also Disparage China?

On Jan. 28, U.S. President Obama made an announcement at the State of the Union address, announcing that “business leaders around the world have declared that China is no longer the world’s number one place to invest; America is.” He stressed the role his leadership played in obtaining various political achievements. Among other things, these included how the U.S. unemployment rate is at its lowest point in five years, how manufacturing industries are starting to create work opportunities for Americans and how the real estate market is in a state of recovery.

To exaggerate his own accomplishments, Obama needed to “disparage China” — this is intriguing. In the reverse situation, a Chinese official would never use this kind of name-dropping strategy. Also, the Chinese government of today would never go about listing its accomplishments as fervently as Obama has. Of course, Obama just wanted to encourage American society; there’s no need to look into things too deeply here.

Areas in which China and the U.S. can be compared concretely are few and far between. One irrefutable fact is this — the speed of China’s development and maturity has shrunk the effective power gap between China and the U.S. Moreover, this trend is showing no sign of reversing, and from the standpoint of each country’s subjective strengths, weaknesses and relations with each other, nothing is abiding. Some areas are nothing more than illusion.

This concept of a “number one country for investment” is sheer nonsense, and China has never proclaimed itself to be this. And in recent times, the Chinese government has shown a tendency to speak out on issues, while leaving room insofar as stating its intentions to tackle them are concerned. When speaking its intentions, China does state that it will try every means it can to accomplish them. Yet to do like Obama — make bold claims about medical care reform and then to falter and stagnate on their implementation — that is something that rarely ever occurs in China.

China has no intention of ruling from the top down as the U.S. does. Without question, the people remain the highest rung in China’s leadership. China doesn’t aim for policies like “let’s eclipse the United States.” We simply observed our gross domestic product growing closer to America’s subjective superiority. All along we have never understood clearly how GDP has any direct meaningful relation to China herself. Therefore, the way experts place critical strategic importance upon such economic factors finds no place within the Chinese policy. They are also not on our agenda insofar as plans for Chinese society are concerned.

The key point the government wants people to understand is that we hope U.S. and China relations will continue on in the present “status quo.” At the same time, we say we have never given consideration to the idea of how to “narrow the gap” on the U.S. “America’s fall” is a phrase learned by the Chinese from the mouths of Americans themselves. We ourselves have never felt there was an American fall in progress. The only thing we’ve ever felt has been a U.S. that is growing in strength without respite, and the pressure from the U.S. that is causing us headaches.

Hopes for an American fall or for the collapse of China are feelings that have never made the mainstream amid the American and Chinese people. But in the times ahead such concerns will, at least, have a general influence on governmental policies for both countries. In recent years, Americans have been losing their self-restraint, and they have been growing increasingly eager in comparing themselves with China. This is a bad omen.

For Obama to not be able to hold back in reading out his comparison of the U.S. to China at the State of Union address, well, we don’t know how long China will tolerate keeping its arms holstered throughout this storm of U.S. public opinion. Some Chinese people are saying with pride, “Hey look! China is already America’s equal!” In truth, we are genuinely concerned about the way Americans are always eyeing China’s sudden rise to prominence.

China’s worries stem from the fact that her capacities for reform have well and truly surpassed those of the U.S. Looking ahead to the coming year, what is clear is that change in both the U.S. and China will be even greater than it is now. The vicissitudes that all great nations face are often born either from the benefits of reform or the results of stagnation. A great number of Chinese maintain a strong position on the speed of U.S. expansion, and they have considerable faith that it will continue to expand into the future.

Yet both the U.S. and China have fundamental issues on which it is difficult to get a reading. Over these past few years, when looking at how Obama’s political leadership has spent countless hours over votes, party squabbling, shutdowns and ultimately wasted so much time just “getting it done,” can it be said that the White House’s politics are still superior? And as for these distrustful attitudes toward the Chinese people, they can only increase as the future progresses.

Although rational Chinese people still hold positive opinions of America’s war capabilities, such opinions are rooted in the healthy attitudes American society has toward China itself. China’s overnight success has been implicated as the cause of America’s decline, yet how could things be so simple in this age of globalization? We hope that the U.S. and China can both exercise patience and keep things open-minded. Many times great nations have capsized over politics, and the lessons learned from them are bitter indeed. We hope that this time around, the path to mutual progress will be straight and clear.

Perhaps Obama was just making a casual comment, and those at the State of Union address were equally casual in their acceptance of it. There’s no need to start chatting about how “the U.S. has already lost its confidence.” We Chinese might also need to restrain our hypersensitivity toward the U.S. From the bottom of our hearts, let’s attend to our own issues and solve China’s problems. China will continue her long-term plan, working internally toward further progress on reform. The day of China becoming like the United States, a cultured and idiosyncratic export-oriented country, is still a long way away.