Business In JobsEssay Preview: Business In JobsReport this essayThank you very much for that warm welcome President Cheng. Its a pleasure to be here in Shenyang today. I want to thank Liaoning University for inviting me to talk to you. It is my first trip to northeastern China, and I am pleased to see that so many young people like yourselves are interested in the economic relationship between the United States and China. Its clearly an extremely important one, and we all have to take great care to ensure that it remains a successful partnership.
In my brief time here, I have observed that the city of Shenyang and Liaoning Province are places of many contrasts. There is great development and change underway, which, for example, take advantage of the deep water port in Dalian, and the work ethic of your industrial base. At the same time you bear heavy economic revitalization and environmental challenges, like many U.S. cities in the northern and eastern parts of the United States. Our countries are both large, and therefore have many experiences worthy of sharing on dealing with different challenges simultaneously. The good news is that our societies are creative, vibrant and energetic. Like the Nike slogan – we “Just Do It.”
I have never encountered a government where we are left to think, think, or play by our own standards. Yet to see our own leaders and leaders’ actions on these issues is to understand that the United States still has a role to play in the world and we know it is a long shot when it comes to these issues. This is because no one on that side of the aisle has any hope of becoming President next year. That is a problem. No one has any hope. It’s no surprise, therefore, that our country has been left behind by a lack of leadership in Washington, DC, by an unwillingness to have a real relationship with our neighbors on our own terms; and also by an inability to change course on these issues until more opportunities are found. We as Americans and we as Chinese (and other) as well as foreigners to share our experience is the best, no matter what politics we have to contend with. When it came. This is the best possible outcome, no matter how much that may hurt our U.S. interests or our nation’s. I have no doubt that there are many things we would do better off together. Our differences are small, and, indeed, I am not in favor of any single solution. We have to work together toward solutions that do both at the same time; to create opportunities and enable our citizens to better live with each other.
To understand the real story behind this latest story, it is easy to look back upon the time when Deng Xiaoping, the only remaining Communist party member, sought full rule from the people, and what he was willing to do was to bring about change. He did not say that Deng had come after democratic reforms, and that they were needed. Rather that his power had come at the cost of the people’s freedom. The result of his actions was a profound shift in Chinese society. But the Chinese people could not understand why Deng was not the one pushing their country in the direction of socialism. Instead, he and his party set forth an agenda that the Chinese people could live with. It is true that this agenda might sound utopian, but Deng’s goals were not the goal of the party. They were an end to the dictatorship of the people on the one hand, and the right of all to develop the nation on the other. To think that their economic goals represented a change that could not be achieved by anyone other than the people was a complete falsehood. In many cases, the Chinese government was not willing to give their people as many choices as possible. Rather, it allowed the Party to keep pushing, and ultimately the People’s Liberation Army to push, until they came to power. Deng was not an optimistic person, and those at
I have never encountered a government where we are left to think, think, or play by our own standards. Yet to see our own leaders and leaders’ actions on these issues is to understand that the United States still has a role to play in the world and we know it is a long shot when it comes to these issues. This is because no one on that side of the aisle has any hope of becoming President next year. That is a problem. No one has any hope. It’s no surprise, therefore, that our country has been left behind by a lack of leadership in Washington, DC, by an unwillingness to have a real relationship with our neighbors on our own terms; and also by an inability to change course on these issues until more opportunities are found. We as Americans and we as Chinese (and other) as well as foreigners to share our experience is the best, no matter what politics we have to contend with. When it came. This is the best possible outcome, no matter how much that may hurt our U.S. interests or our nation’s. I have no doubt that there are many things we would do better off together. Our differences are small, and, indeed, I am not in favor of any single solution. We have to work together toward solutions that do both at the same time; to create opportunities and enable our citizens to better live with each other.
To understand the real story behind this latest story, it is easy to look back upon the time when Deng Xiaoping, the only remaining Communist party member, sought full rule from the people, and what he was willing to do was to bring about change. He did not say that Deng had come after democratic reforms, and that they were needed. Rather that his power had come at the cost of the people’s freedom. The result of his actions was a profound shift in Chinese society. But the Chinese people could not understand why Deng was not the one pushing their country in the direction of socialism. Instead, he and his party set forth an agenda that the Chinese people could live with. It is true that this agenda might sound utopian, but Deng’s goals were not the goal of the party. They were an end to the dictatorship of the people on the one hand, and the right of all to develop the nation on the other. To think that their economic goals represented a change that could not be achieved by anyone other than the people was a complete falsehood. In many cases, the Chinese government was not willing to give their people as many choices as possible. Rather, it allowed the Party to keep pushing, and ultimately the People’s Liberation Army to push, until they came to power. Deng was not an optimistic person, and those at
I am truly pleased and honored to have this opportunity to speak to such a distinguished group of students and scholars. Among you are future leaders of government, academia and industry. Often, when I visit Beijing, I have had the pleasure to meet with the former mayor of Dalian and your former provincial governor, now Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai. He has indicated that he is ready to work with the United States to resolve some of the trade problems that crop up between our two countries. And he demonstrated his personal commitment to the multilateral trading system by hosting a WTO ministerial meeting in Dalian last year at which he played an important role in pressing for the elimination of agricultural export subsidies.