Honest and Brave Intellectuals are Needed for the U.S. and China to Become Good Friends

In the United States, academics and businessmen from time to time receive political appointments and serve at the pleasure of the President. Various roles throughout the administration are filled by women and men with experience leading Universities and corporations. The revolving door between administrations and think tanks is not replicated in the Chinese governance system. In China, political reliability is highly valued and politicians are advanced based on performance measures, with an emphasis on economic performance over the past thirty years. However, the Democratic and Republican parties value political reliability as well. The Communist Party of China and the Democratic and Republican parties in the United States groom individuals who are politically reliable. To be an honest and brave intellectual while remaining politically reliable can be a difficult task in the People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.).

This morning we had the distinct privilege of hearing from one of the most honest and brave intellectuals in the P.R.C., Yang Jiemian. His words renewed my hope for a bright future between China and the United States. Yang believes, “The best way for peace is to do business.”

He spoke to us about the recent Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) Summit, which was held in Shanghai last week, on the 20^th and 21^st. Yang noted, “We need a new momentum of building Asia into a more secure, more peaceful, and more prosperous region of the world.”

Looking forward, he is confident China and the U.S. can become good friends. His poignant words left a lasting impression on our combined group of Bush School and Shanghai Institutes of International Studies graduate students. “We are all human beings,” he said. “We want a happy life. We want to educate ourselves. We want our children to be better than ourselves. We want peace.”

Following the lecture, Dr. Mu observed, “Sometimes intellectuals must be brave and say what they think.” Indeed, Yang Jiemian is the type of brave and honest intellectual China desperately needs as it rises.

Benjamin J. Hayford