Letters | To understand China, America must first reckon with itself
Readers discuss the US-China relationship, Hong Kong’s low-attitude economy ambition, and a way to cover the cost of the transport subsidy
To successfully coexist with China, America needs to first understand and respond to itself. This is crucial as China continues to grow into a global peer. With all the debate about decoupling and de-risking between our two countries, we in the United States are missing the mark.
We have dangerously polarised social, cultural and religious systems. We champion fundamentally discordant economic and political systems. We have two sets of elites that are cut from the same power-seeking cloth. We have been conditioned to not like each other and not want to work with each other. We live in our own respective bubbles. We as a nation and people suffer for it.
Why would decoupling between the US and China be any different on a larger playing field?
China is an easy rhetorical target. But what is America? Who is America? Where has America come from? Reflective answers will help remove our blinders in seeing and responding to China. The American government “knows” China. The Chinese government “knows” America. Where do the people come in when these two myths collide?
