Advertisement
Supported by
Thomas Friedman
By Thomas L. Friedman
Opinion Columnist
There were plenty of surprises and quiet laughter this month when President-elect Donald Trump invited President Xi Jinping to Washington for his inauguration. Foreign leaders don’t attend our inaugurations, of course, but I think Trump’s concept was truly a smart concept. I just got back from China and I can tell you that if I had to paint a picture of the relations between our two countries today, it would be two elephants chasing each other with a straw.
It’s not good. Because the United States and China have a lot more to talk about than the industry and Taiwan (and who is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the 21st century).
The world today faces three historic challenges: rampant artificial intelligence, climate change, and the spread of disorder caused by the collapse of states. The United States and China are the world leaders in AI. super forces. They are the two largest carbon emitters in the world. And they have the two largest naval forces in the world, capable of projecting force on a global scale. In other words, the United States and China are the only two forces that in combination can offer any hope of managing superintelligence, superstorms, and small teams of super-strength angry men in failed states – without communicating about superviruses – at a time when that the global crisis has superseded.
That’s why we want an update of the Shanghai Communiqué, the document that set the parameters for normalizing U. S. -China relations when Richard Nixon visited China and met with Mao Zedong in 1972. Right now, unfortunately, we are in the process of denormalizing. Our two countries are becoming increasingly remote at all levels. In the three decades I’ve visited Beijing and Shanghai, I’ve never felt what I felt about it: like I was the only American in China.
Of course not, but the American accents one regularly hears at a primary exercise station in Shanghai or in the lobby of a Beijing hotel were conspicuously absent. Chinese parents say many families no longer need their children to go to school in the United States. , because they are worried it will become harmful, according to the FBI. in china who Works with foreign academics told me that some Americans no longer need to take exams there during semesters abroad, partly because they don’t like competing with super-intense Chinese academics and partly because, those days, after reading or running in China can increase protection. suspicions among potential long-term American employers.
This is true, everyone is talking about the new Sino-American relationship. During the Cold War, there were still more than 270,000 Chinese scholars reading in the United States, according to the U. S. Embassy in Beijing, but now there are only about 1,100 American scholars reading. in China. That’s down from around 15,000 a decade ago, but it’s up from a few hundred in 2022, shortly after the Covid peak. Where will the next generation of Chinese-speaking American scholars and diplomats come from, and likewise, the Chinese who will perceive the United States?
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Allow JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we determine access. If you’re in Reader mode, exit and log into your Times account or subscribe to the full Times.
Thank you for your patience whilst we ascertain access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Advertisement