Documentary looks to future of bilateral relations

A 10-episode documentary themed around the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the China-US relationship, premiered with the objective of providing insight and vision for the relationship's future.

A Story Spanning 40 Years, which premiered Saturday, features 10 individuals and includes interviews with Neil Bush, son of President George H.W. Bush; Stephen A. Orlins, president of the National Committee on US-China Relations; and Charles Fingar, the Stanford professor who was director of the university's US-China Relations Program after serving the US National Academy of Sciences as co-director of the US-China Education Clearinghouse, among others.

"Our interviewees are witnesses to, constructors and beneficiaries of the 40 years of China-US relationship," said Deng Wei, head of the People's Daily Online West Office, which posted the documentary online.

It took Wei and the production team six months to travel almost 10,000 miles between the coasts, sitting with the 10 individuals to listen to their narratives of how the two nations decided to break the ice in 1972, and ultimately normalizing the bilateral relationship in 1979 by establishing diplomatic ties.

"I'm a big believer of my father's core belief that the US-China relationship is the most bilateral relationship in the world," said Neil Bush.

As the founder of the George Bush Foundation, Neil Bush spends much time each year traveling in China, working to continue his father's legacy of pushing for better understanding between China and the US.

"We made the documentaries with a hope that it would help the two countries, the two peoples understand their counterparts better," said Deng. "Many of the current issues and problems between China and the US arose from the lack of understanding, or ignorance of the history."

China's Consul-General in San Francisco Wang Donghua said he believed the number of Chinese people who understand or know of the US outweigh those who understand China.

"This sort of discrepancies in (mutual understanding) has resulted in misunderstanding, miscommunication, and even more seriously, the misleading US foreign policy towards China," he said.

To solve the problem, "the key is to start knowing of, little by little, China, a peace-loving country that focuses on its own development", Wang added.

The US and China need to sail together because the world needs (a harmonious China-US relationship)," said Chinese American businesswoman Florence Fang, who through her foundation has donated millions of dollars to use education as a bridge to link the young generations across the Pacific Ocean closer.

"The 10 documentaries record important figures, events and meaningful changes in the past 40 years," said Michael Lambert, director of the San Francisco Public Library, who is also one of the interviewees.

He vows to partner with Chinese counterparts and the Chinese community in the San Francisco Bay Area, through resources and books in the library system, to enhance China-US mutual understanding and respect.