Lin Min linmin67@hotmail.com ON many occasions either as Joe Biden’s campaign aide or as U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken has said the United States should deal with China “from a position of strength.” In early June, in an opinion piece published by The Washington Post before his European trip, Biden wrote that he believes his country “must lead the world from a position of strength.” U.S. leaders’ latest favorite term “position of strength” reflects the deeply rooted American exceptionalism, which carries the biased perception that the U.S. system is superior and any vastly different system is inferior and unacceptable. The concept of American exceptionalism originated more than 180 years ago. Alexis de Tocqueville coined the term in his book “Democracy in America,” published in two volumes in 1835 and 1840. America’s sense of being exceptional and superior was reinforced when Henry Luce, the magazine publisher who built a publishing empire on Time, Fortune and Life magazines, declared “The American Century” in 1941. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the U.S. became the only superpower and American exceptionalism reached its pinnacle. This was also the time when much of the world was convinced that communism had failed. Over the past four decades, the Chinese economy has boomed rather than doomed as some Western naysayers have predicted time after time. The nonstop growth, along with exponential technological advancement, has stunned the rest of the world, especially those in the U.S. who regard their country as the “beacon of light” for the rest of the world. For them, a system that is almost opposite to theirs in many aspects has to be evil and is bound to fail. America’s fear and hate of communism and socialism has a long history. The First Red Scare climaxed in the U.S. in 1919/1920 after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and a series of anarchist bombings on U.S. soil after World War I. Then came the Red Scare of the late 1940s and 1950s and the notorious era of McCarthyism. The decades-long Cold War further deepened anti-communist sentiment in the U.S. American media and movies, which dominate the world market, have long portrayed communism as evil and oppressive. The Western narrative labels communism as a monolith that deprives people of happiness and freedom. Such bias has gone unchallenged for too long, partly because of the infiltration of American culture into many countries, partly because of the U.S. military, technological and economic might. Most Westerners, particularly Americans, are not inquisitive enough to learn about the real China and the real Communist Party of China (CPC), how it governs the country and what the Chinese people think of it. The fact is, while the political parties in the U.S. and other “democratic” systems try their best to please their base and political donors, in many cases without acting in the best interest of the people, the CPC always focuses on improving the well-being of the people and makes continuous reforms to keep up with changing times. The CPC’s people-centered philosophy has spawned a governance model that in many ways is superior to a multiparty system: more effective, efficient and focused on improving the well-being of the people. The Chinese people value livelihood, safety and stability, and the CPC delivers. Since the launch of reform and opening up, China has lifted about 770 million impoverished rural citizens out of poverty — a feat that has never been achieved in other parts of the world. Yet the percentage of Americans living in poverty has fallen only a couple of points since 1968, with 10.5 percent of Americans (34 million) still living in poverty as of 2019, compared with 12.8 percent in 1968, according to a Congressional Research Service report. Although the definitions of poverty in the two countries are different, this still showed that the U.S. has made little progress in poverty alleviation in the past decades. The Chinese Government’s all-out efforts in defeating the coronavirus at all costs present a stark contrast with the response of the administration of Donald Trump, whose ego outweighed the interests of the American public. With Western media routinely labeling countries like India as “democratic” and China as “authoritarian,” readers and audiences tend to think Chinese people are living in hell while their counterparts in India and other “democracies” are leading a free and happy life. To the disbelief of many Westerners, the CPC enjoys a very high level of public support in China. A Harvard University survey published in July 2020 found that Chinese citizens’ satisfaction with the Central Government increased from 86 percent to 93 percent between 2003 and 2016, the period of the study. In contrast, Americans who responded they were satisfied with the federal government ranged from 39 percent in 2003 to 37 percent in 2016, according to Gallup polls. With China doing a much better job than other countries in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, public approval of the CPC is now even higher than when the Harvard survey was conducted. Such a contrast is thought-provoking. Those who regard the CPC as oppressive and evil should deeply reflect on why people in a “free and democratic” country like the U.S. are much, much less satisfied with their government than their counterparts in China. The peaceful rise of China, the most populous country in the world, has contributed much to the world’s economic growth and peace. The West owes the CPC not only a fair evaluation, but also a long-overdue appreciation for what it has achieved. (The author is a deputy editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Daily.) | 