'Deficit' of understanding is common enemy of all

Recently, I was in Australia having dialogues with Australian think tanks. One recurring topic was China's and Australia's perceptions of each other.

Australian experts told me that, according to the latest poll, more than 50 percent of the Australian population believe that China is a threat, and Australians are more worried about a war in the Taiwan Strait than Taiwan people are. A sizable percentage of Australians even believe a war between China and Australia is inevitable.

The experts asked me what the perception of the Chinese people would be.

I said that most Chinese people would think that anyone suggesting there would be a war between China and Australia would be joking.

Canberra and Beijing are 9,000 kilometers apart. In the eyes of most ordinary Chinese, Australia is located on the other side of the globe, far away from the trouble-prone Eurasian region. There is no historical grievance between our two countries, no territorial dispute, no fundamental conflict of interests. All we have are highly complementary and highly interdependent economies, and trade, cultural and educational exchanges.

If Australia doesn't take the trouble to concern itself with so-called China matters, all we have between us is mutually beneficial cooperation. Chinese people are very puzzled, and sometimes find it annoyingly funny that Australian think tanks and media portray China as a potential enemy of Australia.

There is clearly a huge "understanding deficit" in the Australian perception of China.

Before I went to Australia, I had a chat with a few friends from Europe and the United States. They are all new in China, about one year or so. And they all have a similar experience: The China they see with their own eyes is vastly different from what they read or heard about before they came to China.

Before they came to China, the impression they had of China from the Western media was a country with authoritarian rule. A country where people's behavior is tightly controlled, where there is no personal freedom, no human rights, no democracy. People have nothing, they are living a miserable life.

When they come to China, they find that the sky is blue, the water is clean. The priorities of the Chinese people are no different from those of the Europeans or Americans: They want better jobs and higher pay and to give their families a decent living. In many ways, life is similar to that in Europe or the US, and in some respects better. You feel very safe in China. There is no district of a city that you are afraid of going to because of racism or public safety concerns. The people are very nice, and they are friendly to foreigners.

Chinese are a very peaceful people: The so-called assertive or aggressive actions of China are in fact mostly reactions to provocations from outside. China is not at all the kind of place that is portrayed in Western media.

Then my friends began to rethink: Maybe the Chinese have their own reasons to govern the country in their own way. Maybe there is a reason for the Chinese people to insist on having their own system and way of development. Then they recognize that China does not try to export its system or threaten any country that has a different one.

The Chinese people just want to live a better life and ensure their own homeland is more secure, and you can't blame them for that. And they are ready to share with others.

What my friends conclude is: We could well co-exist with the Chinese and live in harmony while allowing for differences. We could very well develop together, rather than enter into confrontation with each other.

These Europeans and Americans I have mentioned are highly internationalized — diplomats, senior executives or scholars. If these well-traveled people are so limited in their understanding of China, what can we expect from other people?

Indeed, most people outside of China get their perceptions of China from the media, and the perceptions of the media come, more often than not, from politicians and members of think tanks, many of whom close their eyes and judge China according to their ingrained geopolitical thinking. Because of this, they perceive China to be an enemy and, in the name of preventive measures for safeguarding their own country's security, engage in massive military expansion and even seek to restrict normal economic, trade and science and technology exchanges with China.

In this way, China is demonized and China's relations with some countries undermined, such as the relations between China and Australia.

We have to say that the "understanding deficit" is ubiquitous and its usual form of existence is ignorance and prejudice. It is the common enemy of humankind, standing in the way of peaceful coexistence and harmonious development.

To further expand convergence and form a community of shared interests, we need to sincerely seek to understand each other and reduce the "understanding deficit".

It is with this goal in mind that China has proposed its three global initiatives on development, security and civilization.

With better mutual understanding, the people of the world will have enough wisdom to join hands to properly handle the common challenges we face.

The author is vice-chairman of the China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.