Shanghai Daily Friday 30 June 2017 opinion 7

The healthy competition between states or nations is a fertile ground for innovation and betterment of human life.

Patrick Mendis East or West, a better life is dream for all

Editor’s note: system and the exchange of gifts and disparity. For him, individual freedom substantially after joined WTO Award-winning American diplomat and treasures. That was in contrast to the was myopic for national development. in 2001. Will President Trump run scholar Dr. has just often-violent Western colonial powers Instead, he advocated the civic national- against free trade? And if so, how will completed visiting all the provinces of China in Asia and elsewhere. Given all this, it ism as an alternative to democracy. This it affect Sino-US relationship? as a Confucius Fellow and had recently is important to understand the cultural had apparently given rise to the collec- interviewed with Shanghai Daily opinion context to China’s One Belt One Road ini- tive freedom of his people in modern A: The world is a better place because editor Wang Yong about his most recent tiative. The overall concept is to achieve China after 1911. of the men of practical wisdom like book, Peaceful War (also published in a win-win situation for the countries A lexander Hamilton and . Mandarin Chinese in ), and his views involved for a shared future. Q: China and the US form the most Yes, since China gained WTO membership, on Sino-American relations. A distinguished important bilateral relationship in the China’s economic advancement has been phenomena l i n hu ma n h istor y. I don’t see visiting professor of Asian-Pacific affairs at Q: You pointed out that Confucian world today, as you quoted Hillary Clin- President Trump as against free trade, Shandong University in Jinan and a senior values, such as integrity, harmony ton as saying. Former CIA acting direc- but he is everything against Obama fellow at the Pangoal Institution in Beijing, and achieving success step by step, tor John McLaughlin shared her view from the Trans-Pacific Partnership to Professor Mendis has lectured at over 25 had a positive impact on certain US in his comment on your book. Why is the American Affordable Care Act to the universities in China. He is a former Rajawali founding fathers. How has Confucius Sino-US relationship so important? Paris Climate Change Agreement. senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School actually influenced American way of of Government and currently an associate- life throughout US history? A: In international affairs, the future of Q: You said neither China in its long in-research at the Fairbank Center for human destiny depends largely on how history nor the US in its founding fa- Chinese Studies at Harvard University. A: I don’t really know how much influ- major-power relationships are managed. thers’ time regarded territorial expan- ence Confucian values per se have on The US as the established-power and China sion as a must for the construction of Q: Your book (English edition) came American culture these days. But, the as the emerging-power, it is important a powerful and enlightened country out in 2013, coinciding with Chinese founding generation of the United States for Beijing and Washington to avoid what (although imperialist thinking once got President ’s proposal to had evidently looked up to Chinese cul- Harvard Professor Graham Allison has the upper hand in later US history). build One Belt One Road. How did you ture and Confucian values as a foundation called the “Thucydides’ Trap.” Will this shared belief help China and think ahead of most Western aca- for the American republic to succeed. However, I don’t foresee the calculus for the US create a “Pacific dream” of demics in predicting China’s effort They despised the British and other such eventuality given the interconnect- peace and prosperity? to revive the ancient with a colonial powers and turned to China for edness of these two economies. It would view to promote win-win trade? be akin to my home-state of Minnesota inspiration. And, I consider Benjamin A: As children always say, it is not Fran klin to be the “A merican Confucius” going to war with Wisconsin because they “fair” in quarrels between and among A: Well, I am a student of history and I who promoted Confucian-like values for recently had disagreements over eco- themselves, we are always mindful of have been fascinated by Chinese culture American greatness. Not only Franklin nomic paths and strategies even though what’s fair and what’s justice. We can’t and its civilizational history since I was a but other literary giants like Thomas they share a great quality of life. Sure, have peace and prosperity without ad- teenager growing up in Sri Lanka. Paine and Charles Thomson, the secre- some Minnesotans and companies may dressing this fundamental question. The I le a r n e d t h at C h i n e s e B udd h i st- s c h ol a r tary of the Continental Congress, wrote move to Wisconsin to benefit from lower concept of Americanism is predicated on monks visited Sri Lanka and popular- most admirably of the “industrious” income and corporate taxes. But, not for this expansive idea of “justice for all.” ized Buddhist teachings in China long Chinese people and their “civilized” war. The healthy competition between I think this is also true in the Chinese before the Tang Dy nasty. These spiritual Confucian culture. states or nations is a fertile ground for in- tradition where we are “brothers and sis- connections were made possible by the and even George Washington were fond novation and betterment of human life. ters under Heaven.” The future of moral evolving ancient Silk Road networks. of Chinese architecture and plants for superiority in public policy and political And, almost some 20 years ago, I came their gardens and estates. Confucius is Q: Chinese leaders say the Pacific is leadership is what matters in creating a to Xi’an — an ancient capital of China — depicted on the sun-rising east pediment wide enough to accommodate both “Pacific dream” for a better world. to teach at the Northwestern University. I of the US Supreme Court at the right-side China and the US. Does this message have been a regular visitor to China and of Moses, the ancient law-giver. The left- echo your view that China and the US Q: You observed that Chinese learned more about the evolving history side is Solon. The symbolic message is share the dream of building a land of President Xi Jinping visited an and the policy-orientation of rejuvena- that the United States is an amalgama- justice and equality? ordinary American family in Iowa, tion of Chinese culture and history. tion of the East and the West. which showed his respect for A: We all have similar aspirations. friendship, fidelity and family values. Q: You mentioned Ming Dynasty Q: As you noticed, Liang Qichao Thomas Jefferson nicely put this in his How will Xi’s people-first style help general Zheng He’s historic trips to (1873-1929) visited the US and famous say ing, “life, liberty, and the pur- win over American hearts, thus Sri Lanka and other ancient silk road searched for a model of democracy. suit of happiness.” I meant the “spiritual reducing possible cultural bias regions, and proved that those trips Why, unlike Alexis de Tocqueville, happiness,” not necessarily the material between the two countries? had largely promoted a culture of did he advise Chinese people not to happiness that’s commonly interpreted. peaceful co-existence and orderly follow the American way? When the Founding Fathers looked A: Frankly, I thought it was unprece- trade (in contrast to some later Eu- to China for its Confucian culture for dented for a Chinese leader or any world ropean colonists who imposed their A: Yes, the French and the Chinese inspiration, there was wisdom for cre- leader to send a powerful Confucian own cultures upon local ones and travelers observed the United States dif- ating the new republic to succeed as a message of family values. practiced cut-throat trade). How im- ferently. Not only their observations but civilized American nation, as opposed Friendship and fidelity matter — they are the heart of human spirit. When we portant is this part of history to West- also their inherited cultural backgrounds to what they had seen in Europe. Yes, don’t have this, we turn to “In God We ern scholars today in understanding seemingly inf luenced them to see the new they were highly influenced by the Trust” as the American motto suggests. China’s One Belt One Road initiative? republic in contrasting perspectives. European Enlightenment but they also I think, however, President Trump For Alexis de Tocqueville, the United tried to integrate Confucian values as seems to value “loyalty” and “family universal for American development. A: Almost one-hundred years before States was a breath of fresh air with in- values” in a very different way than President Xi Jinping’s “China Dream” is Christopher Columbus discovered the dividual freedoms as opposed to what President Xi does. As our Founding Americas, Muslim Admiral Zheng He he knew of h is oppressive homeland and a national dream for his people. Fathers admired Confucian values, embarked on seven highly successful its given history. For Liang Qichao, he What matters most is: Are we as it appears to me that we can hardly Ming voyages to over 30 countries in seemed to have had oversized expecta- individuals and nations better off than substitute the authenticity of the human Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. In tions of the so-called “democracy” in the previous generations? heart for the transactional nature of contrast to the three tiny ships of Co- America. And, he witnessed crowded President Trump. If past is prologue, we lumbus, the hundreds of massive Ming prisons, failing educational systems, Q: You mentioned that Deng Xiaoping can’t minimize the power of Confucian ships were a floating city in the ocean. and poor people while traveling across embraced commerce with the reform ethics and family values that the Chinese More importantly, these voyages in gen- the United States. He even met with and opening policy, and that Hamilton ancient culture has expounded on the eral were peaceful in nature as the Ming President Theodore Roosevelt and J.P. also attached importance to trade. civilizational-state, the only thriving envoy promoted the Chinese tributary Morgan, and then noticed the economic China’s trade with the US has grown socio-cultural ethos in the world.