US and China must bring back constructive people-to-people exchanges

US-China disagreements over a host of issues, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang and Tibet, are complicated. The issues demand thoughtful discussions rooted in mutual respect, not shrill, one-sided remonstrations. Relations between these two most powerful nations in the world are at a recent low. In the last six years, anti-China rhetoric rooted in American political fevers has left many peace-loving Chinese-Americans facing scorn, even violence, from fellow Americans. In trying to root out spies, the US government has investigated many Chinese scholars (many in the fields of science, technology and engineering), with only a small percentage leading to convictions. While it is vital to protect our nation from enemies (foreign or domestic), it is unwise to resort to myopic strategies smacking of racial profiling which only stir up fear, panic and suspicion among law-abiding Chinese-American scholars and loyal citizens. Recently, a wave of ethnic Chinese scientists, including world-leading structural biologist Nieng Yan from Princeton University, chose to leave America under this cloud of intercultural pressure. China and the United States were sworn enemies until former US president Richard Nixon dramatically reached out to re-establish relations. Nixon stressed cultural exchanges and enrichment to help citizens of both nations see each other as fellow contributors to peaceful artistic expressions, instead of only as bitter enemies. President Jimmy Carter advanced this policy with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and, in the 1979 accords, expanded interactions that promoted education and academic partnerships. One of the strongest advocates of building international respect through academic interrelationships was the devout Christian scholar Ernest Boyer. A former president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Dr Boyer felt he could promote peace by working against suspicions through respectful academic exchanges. As US-Chinese diplomatic relations continued to normalise, then-president George Bush took a long-term, hopeful approach by sending a “special envoy” to China after the pro-democracy movement ended in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. Later, president Bill Clinton declared the US and China strategic partners, and promoted global academic and educational exchanges. These helped many Americans and Chinese learn more about each other. We know this because one of us (van Gorder) spent nine years as a professor of American history and literature at Yunnan University between 1989 and 1998, living in Kunming – which is home to one of the brightest moments of American-Chinese partnership, when the American “Flying Tigers” led by Texas pilot Claire Chennault fought alongside Chinese pilots against Japanese fascist imperialism. Global educational and academic exchanges are precious. We are grateful for and have benefited from the academic exchange agreements between the US and China. Unfortunately, recent political diatribes have brought most of these partnerships to a close. Under former president Donald Trump, but also under President Joe Biden, many state-level intercultural educational programmes have stalled. These include the Fulbright programme that has done much to help citizens of each country. It seems modern America lacks the (often Christian) visionary insight of past leaders such as Boyer, Nixon, Carter, Bush and Clinton. America and China need to return to the promotion of people-to-people exchanges. For America’s future China experts, challenges go beyond language and access Xenophobic politicians may find a ready audience when they scapegoat China and promote the notion that Chinese workers are the enemies of American workers. But most of the jobs lost in America’s rust-belt regions – such as Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania – were the result of neo-liberal policies of economic globalisation, which led to the erosion of our industrial infrastructure. But it is much easier to just blame China for all our problems. Ironically, the US was fine when China concentrated on labour-intensive, low-end manufacturing, and only became concerned when China turned to state-sponsored economic policies focusing on hi-tech developments. Of course, American geopolitical issues must always protect the needs and objectives of Americans. But none of us benefit when fearmongers predict a war between our nations. American military leaders must not be naive and must prepare for any and all possibilities – but there’s no place for a brinkmanship that relishes the inevitability of such a war. Shouts of panic, rooted in racial stereotyping, serve no one’s best interests. The US should always speak up for the persecuted, such as those in Xinjiang or Tibet, but such advocacy must be free of caustic finger-pointing and self-righteous criticisms that help no one. Why US, China power transition does not have to be dangerous and lead to war Clearly, China and the US have very distinct views about human rights based on historically variant social and cultural values. The public shaming and blaming of a China framed as a backward civilisation in terms of moral rectitude only invites it to look at how America has oppressed our citizens of colour, women and Native Americans, across the complex march of our national development. Instead of exchanging strident diatribes, the peoples of America and China should work to solve problems in ways that lead to constructive solutions rather than acrimonious divisiveness. What our two nations need is constructive dialogue across a wide spectrum of important human rights, economic and political issues. All of us – in China and America – need to consider how others view us and how we can promote a greater shared understanding instead of mutual suspicion and fear. Dr Xin Wang is an associate professor of China Studies, director of Asian and African languages, and director of Asian Studies in the Department of Languages and Cultures at Baylor University in Texas, US A. Christian van Gorder is an associate professor of world religions and Islamic studies in Baylor University’s Religion Department

US and China must bring back constructive people-to-people exchanges

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Amid US-China tensions, as intercultural exchanges and academic exchanges drop off, constructive dialogue between the two peoples is needed more than ever

Amid US-China tensions, as intercultural exchanges and academic exchanges drop off, constructive dialogue between the two peoples is needed more than ever