美中全球议题对话项目

When discussing bias in media, one Chinese student compared the political angles of China’s Xinhua News to those of CNN in the United States. While it is undeniable that CNN reporting has its biases, it is entirely different from a state-run news outlet such as Xinhua, whose reporters are effectively banned from criticizing the Chinese government. Another discouraging and personally disappointing element of these dialogues was the frequency of talking points that sounded as though they came straight out of CCP press releases. Our dialogues took place not long after the Chinese “Two Sessions,” during which Xi Jinping repeatedly lauded China’s success in eradicating poverty. In our dialogue with Fudan University, one student spent two minutes reading a prepared speech on China’s progress in eradicating poverty which sounded as though it came straight out of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This feeling that I was speaking directly to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was common throughout the dialogues. In fact, at one point following a lengthy and very party-line comment from a Chinese student, a Chinese professor praised the student by saying that they had a future in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On the other hand, I was encouraged by our shared concerns and ability to easily find common ground when discussing less divisive topics. Everyone agreed that our countries should look for ways to cooperate and should use cultural exchange as a tool to promote mutual understanding. We connected with each other on topics related to pop culture and youth issues. At least on the surface, we shared an understanding that we are all human before we are American or Chinese.

Overall, the dialogues reinforced a key difference between China and the United States: here in the United States, we welcome and often encourage criticism of our government and our history; in China, such open criticism is much less common and, as my experience in these dialogues revealed, not encouraged even in the country’s premier academic institutions. In my view, this reality indicates that China’s future leaders are conceptualizing the U.S.-China relationship in a way very similar to that of China’s current leaders.

Jessica Duhon (SFS'22) is a junior in the School of Foreign Service majoring in Regional Studies concentrating on Asia with a minor in Chinese.