Zhao Qizheng: China, US Must not Turn against Each Other

China and the United States, standing in the threshold of a new century, have every obligation to develop their relations if for nothing but the good of future generations, said Zhao Qizheng, minister of China's State Council Information Office Wednesday morning at the US National Press Club.

``Neither side would benefit if the two turn against each other,''Zhao emphasized in an address before a large squad of more than 100 reporters.

The two peoples of China and the United States had forged good cooperative relations especially during the World War II fighting Japanese army, and Chinese people hold a profound fondness of American people, Zhao said. However, there are always stumbling obstacles propping up now, whenever the bilateral relations show upward trends, namely, the Taiwan issue, the Dalai Lama, the human rights, and allegations of China spying on the United States, said Zhao in a 70-minute speech titled ``America and Her People as Seen by Chinese.''

Zhao is currently heading a large-scale cultural delegation crisscrossing most of the US metropolises. The crusade, called ``2000 Experience Chinese Culture in the United States,'' is aimed at letting Americans get a better picture of what China is and promoting understanding of the peoples.

``There is no single reason why our two countries could not cooperate. If there are any, they are all man-made,'' said the Chinese minister, indicating the blocking obstacles should and could be removed.

The majority of the Chinese people share the consensus that China and the US, as the world's largest developing and developed countries, should enhance understanding, diminish trouble, advance cooperation and shun confrontation, Zhao said.

The Chinese minister urged the US media to play its due role of giving the American public an impartial description of China. Though occasionally Chinese media do carry stories critical of US' China policy, by and large they are rather balanced in reporting the economic, technological and social progress made in the US. ``However, much to their dismay, many Chinese find that US' media reports about China in sharp contrast, are often scanty, inaccurate and prejudicial, " Zhao said.

He criticized the US media for projecting China's development by two radical measures, diminishing China's role and exaggerating its future strength. Some US press says China, with its huge population, will face a series of problems including food shortage and social disturbance which could danger neighboring countries, while, others cook up the so-called ``China threat'' theory, which have helped create an unfriendly atmosphere for China in the US and around the world.

These efforts by the US media not only help transform the American people's perception of China, but also change Chinese people's attitudes about the US, Zhao said. In the aftermath of the May 1999 US-led NATO bombing of Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia, and more recently a flurry of allegations that China spying on the US, more and more Chinese people are questioning their concept of the country on the other side of the Pacific.

They are puzzled by a string of questions: Why mainstream US media are against China? Why should they misinform the US public? Why the US should keep churning out a report each year reprimanding the human rights of China? Why should the US raise an anti-China resolution in the annual UN human rights conference? Why should the US keep interfering in issues concerning China's Taiwan and Tibet? Why the US should expand year on year the arms sales to Taiwan? Will ever the US be a friend of China?

But, in history, China had never singled out the US as the target of hatred, Zhao said.

Actually, Chinese people had had a profound fondness of the US, he said. Through the writings by Jack London, William Faulkner, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain and Hemingway, Chinese readers find the American people optimistic, tough and practical, which also explains why the translation of America in Chinese is mei (beautiful), li (profitable) and jian (solid).

The two countries had once forged good relations by cooperating and helping each other in need. During the World War II, when the Japanese army cut the supply line between China and Myanmar in 1943, the US Air Force opened the route by the Himalayas. Many US planes were lost due to the harsh natural and weather conditions there, and as many as 1,500 American pilots lost their lives.

Nowadays, the China Nanjing cemetery of American pilots are still well preserved and admired, Zhao said.

Chinese people also made their contributions to the economic take-off of the American West. Altogether 310,000 Chinese workers died in the middle 1800s when the US government launched the mammoth railway project there.

Ending his speech, Zhao said: ``I hope my speech will more or less give you an idea that the Chinese people, in their best wishes, expect the US to be a beautiful country, not a beautiful imperial power.'' (Chinadaily)



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