美中全球议题对话项目

With the exception of the Chinese Empire in 6th grade social studies, I have never formally studied China in the classroom. Though I have done my best to read up on U.S.-China relations, as I logged onto the first session of the U.S.-China Student Dialogue in November, I was nervous I would not have as much to contribute as my highly-knowledgeable peers. Prior to that first zoom call, the majority of my conversations surrounding Chinese policy were about why the local tire plant shut down or whether or not my little brother should be allowed to download TikTok. Taiwan and semiconductors seemed worlds away. What I didn’t expect was for these everyday experiences to inform our discussions as much as they did.

Each of the three Zoom sessions was organized around a different topic; however, we frequently found ourselves asking our counterparts about everyday life in their home country. The topic I was most interested in was media in China. As an aspiring journalist, I’m passionate about press freedom and how people consume information. Given censorship policies under the Golden Shield Project, I was hesitant to ask the Peking University students direct questions, but curious about how they engaged with global news and everyday technology. Many of the students reported that their social media feeds were “unfriendly” toward the United States and depicted positive messages about life in China. Despite this stark contrast, I was fascinated to hear that some of the Peking University students enjoyed the overwhelmingly positive messages on their feeds and saw them as an uplifting outlet from everyday life. So much of the media we consume about China in the United States portrays the country as an oppressive adversary, so it was refreshing to pull back the curtain and speak with students who experience its domestic policies daily.

Though each conversation had a different policy focus, there was always an overarching theme of trust. In any discussion of U.S.–China relations, this question inevitably arises: can there be a future beyond brutal competition if lingering suspicion underlies every agreement? In the United States, you often hear “we can’t trust China” coming from everyone from senators to steelworkers. However, you rarely hear that China can’t trust the United States. Hearing that distrust returned forced me to reconsider how one-sided that assumption can be.

Our Chinese counterparts asked us questions about youth trust in TikTok and DeepSeek, and we responded with questions about ChatGPT and Gemini. While many U.S. students I speak with express distrust of DeepSeek, I was intrigued to hear that the Peking University students used ChatGPT as much as they did DeepSeek. As an American Studies student, I am always interested in hearing how foreigners view the United States and was surprised to hear one student say that her grandmother was worried for her to go to the United States due to gun violence. I’m looking forward to traveling to China and engaging with the Peking University students in person to continue to have moments like these, pulling back the curtain to see what China is really like, all while holding up a mirror to my life in the United States.

Michael Scime (C'27) is a student at Georgetown University studying American studies and minoring in journalism.