Video Plus: Why does the West fear China?
Why does the West fear China?
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they're picturing china as the great threat to the world in the west and especially united states for them everything is win-lose [Music] i think one thing that's kind of sad is that the western misconceptions about china today are pretty similar to those so when i came in 88 it hasn't been a lot of change but they're similar to what they were 100 years ago that's why when xi jinping was governor 20 years ago in fujian he said that chinese have come to know the world better but
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the world still doesn't know china for example i was in taiwan i was in the military in taiwan for two years i really thought that china was the big threat to the world but that's because of fake news is nothing new in 1899 just before the 20th 20th century began in that year lord bearsford in england wrote a book called the breakup of china it was a catalog of all the chinese provinces and cities and all the resources the west could get from it i mean they're really talking about taking
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china to pieces i get this you get this and in the same year two other books they published was china the yellow peril and china at war with the world they're picturing china as the great threat to the world which is ironic because they were tearing china to pieces forcing opium on china chinese have never gone to a distant country to take over and yet they were saying china was the threat it was pretty ironic but china was a threat to the west because they thought china is finally going to
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stand up and stop the easy money that was a fake news then and today is the same thing they you know it they still are paraded just like in 70s when i was in taiwan the 80s when i first came today they're saying china is a threat to the world china's destroying the world order well what's a world order built on i mean it wasn't necessarily a good order anyway and so the media is very powerful or when the second opium war media was used even back then the british leaders of parliament the entire
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british parliament unanimously opposed the second opium war so the prime minister just dissolved parliament and the media said we're going to war against china because of the honor of the queen they did something bad and but people believed it and today people believe it there's not much change in really 180 years so that's why i think it's so important that we really work not just government promotion but that a lot of people get involved in telling china's story to help foreigners see what is the
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truth here that's why i started writing about china if i write about china if i write my family and friends as soon as i got to china i saw china is not at all like what the media portrayed it so i immediately started writing letters and articles and things to show china but i thought if i really start writing about china they'll see that as propaganda so i wrote about chinese and how chinese lived and what their dreams were and how their lives were changing and through that try to change people's opinion because
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if you understand chinese then you understand china and my father was the hardest cell he was in military 18 years in asia 11 years fighting communist china so he wasn't real happy i came here but the year he died a few months before he died the last time i saw him he said he finally understood why i came here and stayed here and he's proud that i did it and that was i thought if my father can change so i think the most important thing china will do besides telling more materials about china
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is just its actions in the world i mean the world really fears china but i understand why they fear china because i mean look at history 500 and something years how the western countries i tell my students that the chinese are the best business people in history because throughout history chinese have done real business they've never had beijing military navy behind them chinese in china and southeast asia they just did real business whereas for 500 years western businessmen have always had the
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military and the government's behind them so that's how the west has done things for over 500 years and i don't think they can really understand that chinese throughout history have not done colonialism these kind of things and they've just done real pure business peaceful business but they can't believe a country this big can be so different [Music] so i think china's actions peaceful coexistence peaceful development peaceful helping other countries i think that's the greatest china story
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in the west and especially united states for them everything is win-lose you know win lose and the u.s has to be number one at everything and then germany france and england the former colonial powers have to be right behind them in japan and they see china as catching up as a threat to them being number one why does this everybody have to be number one why can't they just coexist but they can't see that they can't accept that but the fact is the numbers don't lie 25 years ago i wrote about
Why does the West fear China? - YouTube
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this in articles you know i said the economy is returning the global economy is the center is returning to asia and not moving to asia returning to asia and foreigners will slowly see this because they have to see it and they have to accept it but they need to learn a little history too harvard business review in 2014 said that 300 years ago china and india had two-thirds of the world gdp and harvard business review said before the first opium war the chinese economy was more open and more market driven
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than the economies of europe so they talk about this open economy free trade but they've never done it they've always had colonialism and military intervention and regime change china has never done that but they fear china will do that and so they tried for 180 years to contain china now they're getting the point where they're seeing they can't contain china and if they continue they'll only isolate themselves like china just signed the rcep trade agreement which takes i think a
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third of the world or two-thirds or some humongous amount and u.s is not part of that so i think rest of the world is going to have to see the fact that they can't contain china they can't stop it but that doesn't make china a threat i think china for the first time in at least 500 years since columbus day i think china can show the world how to peacefully develop because in a planet this small i can't afford to always solve everything with war so i hope china can teach a peaceful
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world order [Music] you
