I have been visiting China for the last sixteen years, often multiple times a year, sometimes for extended stays. I’ve traveled through big cities, small towns, and remote villages. Over time, I’ve come to see China not through ideology or media narratives, but through direct experience—what I’ve seen, heard, and felt.
Much of what people in the West believe about China is simply untrue. Here is the China I’ve seen: safer than advertised, brutally efficient, less corrupt than it was, and far more pragmatic than our narratives allow.
It amazes me how persistently and deeply people, across the political spectrum, hold negative images of China. I suspect Washington’s propaganda has seeped into the minds not only of leftists and hawks, but even of thoughtful conservatives and libertarians, who often repeat the clichés......
....Within East Asia, China may now be the most open-minded society—arguably even more so than Singapore. I would not be surprised if true zero-to-one innovation is already taking root. This will only accelerate as high-IQ Westerners begin moving in. Long-term residency has become easier, and as social conflicts inevitably intensify in the West, more of its best talent will likely relocate to China.
I see deep conflicts between Western culture and Islam, and even sharper ones with Hinduism. At the core, I find no real path for the West to work with the Third World—their visions clash, and their societies remain tribal and animalistic. When people from the Third World arrive in the West, they do not assimilate; if anything, they become worse. Assimilation remains a dream. In contrast, I see a genuine symbiosis between China and the United States. I wish they would work together rather than oppose each other—for in this, Washington often acts against the true interests of Americans.
China is here to stay, and its trajectory is upward. In terms of economics and military, China is the next America. There will be no Pax Sinica—the Chinese are too inward-looking. In terms of being the beacon of liberty—and hence of spirituality, creativity, and innovation, that visceral religious vision for humanity—there likely isn’t a next America.
