Blaming the Chinese for Beijing's flaws is not just lazy. It's wrong

South China Morning Post

03-05-2025

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In the heat of
rising tariffs and tough talk about China, it is more important than ever to distinguish between a government's policies and a people's humanity. The failure to do so not only clouds our judgment but risks deepening the fractures that diplomacy was built to heal.
Political tensions often produce more noise than clarity. United States President Donald Trump
asserted in a recent interview that tariff negotiations with China were under way, and even that Chinese President Xi Jinping had called him personally. Yet almost immediately, China's Foreign Ministry issued a sharp rebuttal: 'The US should stop creating confusion.'
My own understanding of China goes deeper than political headlines. During my studies at Emory University's Candler School of Theology, I encountered ancient Chinese teachings that reshaped my world view. For someone raised Baptist in a small town in upstate New York, philosophies like
Confucianism, Taoism and the Yinyang school were initially difficult to grasp. Yet their wisdom ultimately transformed how I see the world.
From the Yinyang school, I learned that all phenomena are products of opposing yet complementary forces. This challenged my ingrained assumptions about gender, power and life itself.
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Confucius and his follower Mencius taught me to honour human relationships – with family, colleagues and community – not just out of sentiment but as moral obligations that sustain a just society.