Hope That the United States Has Changed Mentality of 100 Years Ago

On June 18, an apology was issued more than 100 years after the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed; the resolution by the U.S. Congress will be welcomed. It tells us that 100 years ago, Western society still had a lot of barbaric qualities, even though at that time, the elites of the Anglo-American and other Western countries believed themselves to be civilized.

The question is: Can the West be considered thoroughly civilized today? The current elites of the West probably think so. This is not necessarily [the case], however; the mainstream Western value system still hosts strong Western centrism. Cultural discrimination acted as some sort of influence on racial discrimination.

The United States’ attitude towards China today is far from being based on an objective evaluation system. A considerable part of the elite in the United States is brimming with prejudice toward China. These prejudiced elite members and the prejudiced Americans of 100 years ago are fairly similar. The labels “authoritarian” or even “dictatorship” are commonly used in U.S. public opinion to summarize China, and the U.S. is unwilling to carefully study the underlying reasons for China’s booming development.

A few years from now, the future elite of the United States will look back at today’s public opinion of China and see repression and slander, and will also likely feel that it has gone too far.

Bias often comes from the sense of superiority. Also, the absolute pursuit of interest can bring bias to an extreme level, and unrestricted power can bring about acts that are contrary to being civilized.

Back in the day, the laborers who immigrated to the United States promoted economic development, but also brought about employment pressures. The attitude of the Americans toward Chinese laborers was entirely pragmatic and, furthermore, completely selfish. They only wanted the laborers to bring benefits to the United States and refused to get these benefits by paying for them, so the Chinese Exclusion Act emerged.

Today, the U.S. Congress seems to be in the same selfish world. They are clear that China’s development is the greatest source of progress in human rights, but they continue to raise questions about China’s development. They do not want China’s development to damage the current status of the United States, and they think the U.S. should mobilize efforts to prevent a challenge to the United States.

Mankind’s political civilization is constantly evolving. Respect for individual rights is gradually forming a global morality, as is the respect for ethnic groups. But respect of other countries is still in the initial stages of exploration, and the root cause of world order is still in the nation-state power mode, as all ethnic groups are trying to trying to advance their own benefits in order to increase competition.

The United States needs more people of “enlightenment” and with a mind for the public good in order to properly deal with China. The world, however, has not yet contributed to the strength of “enlightenment” in the United States. The U.S. interest in global public opinion is about judgment values. The United States has the ability to change wrong into right, but that would be unusual.

Chinese people probably do not hold out much hope for America’s “new awakening.” The U.S. government has already sent us enough information about this new consciousness. Naturally, the same mistakes and attitudes of the United States toward the outside may be very unreasonable, even extreme. They need to reevaluate, especially when it comes to our own.

Nevertheless, the U.S. Congress resolution on June 18 is still commendable, and it represents the progress of human reason. And although morality’s growth is slow, it is firmly expanding and strengthening; the human race is brimming with hope.