When I arrived in this land in the mid-1990s, a heated debate was going on regarding U.S.-China relations: engagement or containment. As a Chinese studying in the U.S., I had been a great admirer of the U.S., I loved the country where I was from – China, and I also treasured universal values such as peace, cooperation, brotherhood, and mutual understanding.
I understood that there were a lot of Chinese who were very pro-U.S. Consequently, I wished in my dissertation to objectively discuss the Chinese attitude toward the U.S., including the deep reservoir of goodwill in China toward the U.S.
But some professors tried hard to "urge" me to focus on the negative Chinese attitude toward the U.S. As I insisted on a comprehensive study of this subject, including both the positive and the negative aspects, professors were displeased with me. The atmosphere in the department at that time was such that another student received strong approval because he focused exclusively on how Chinese disliked the U.S. and how Chinese were irrational. He told me that he wrote in this way because he wanted to succeed academically. My advisor, a very nice gentleman, was under the pressure to ask me to "write as others did," not to be different. I disagreed, and my normal academic progress was seriously affected.
I believe it was in the U.S.’s interest not to turn China into its enemy. Look, the U.S. in the last century had fought almost every major power in the world, the Central Powers in the World War I, Germany, Japan, and Italy in the World War II, Russia during the Cold War, and the Islamic people in the current War on Terrorism. It would be natural for those defeated to be resentful, even though when the U.S. is at the zenith of its power, the resentment of those defeated might be below the surface. Probably the two major powers not very much resentful toward the U.S. were China and India. The U.S. and China did have a war in Korea, but as the war ended in a tie, neither country has reason to be very much resentful toward the other. If the U.S. eventually decided to turn China with more than one billion people into an enemy, the U.S. would In the long run find the world a much more hostile place. With a strong conviction that I was in the right, academically and beyond, I declined writing "as others did" and had to pay dearly for doing the right thing.