An Unlikely Ride

"We are going to Wuchang, near the university."

"Very good. What country are you from?"

"America."

"America, Americans. You don't respect China, and you love to go to war, no?"

I peered over at my Chinese friend, who began to sink into the back seat of the cab. My American friend in the front seat, who lay within strangling-range of our new friend, stared straight ahead and kept silent. After a day of hiking hills and beating the pavement, my compatriot lacked the energy to engage our apparent adversary.

Our driver took us on a long and winding diatribe, taking particular aim at Americans and the Japanese.

His voice was rusty but not very deep--the kind of voice one thinks older cab drivers should have. He articulated his words sharply, and he emphasized key words like "disrespect" and "Iraq" with extra high and extra low tones. His Chinese sounded authoritative and rhythmic--the kind I could only dream of speaking.

"You Americans disrespect China and seek to keep us weak," he exclaimed. According to his analysis, the United States has grown accustomed to dealing with a lesser adversary and considers this power dynamic inevitable. US policy towards Taiwan--a renegade Chinese province, according to the PRC--exemplifies this arrogance. The United States continues to supply arms to this law-violating government because the U.S. does not respect Chinese policy towards Taiwan. Furthermore, arming Taiwan allows the United States to keep China down.

But just you wait, the driver warned, China was growing fast and soon would overtake the United States.

In addition to disrespecting China, my friend and I also apparently support war--no nuance necessary. If not inherent belligerence, what else could explain our country's support for an unprovoked war and for a President who initiated it and remains unable to secure the attacked country's future?

And those loathsome Japanese. "Haven't you seen the movies and television episodes depicting the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression ( World War Two Japanese incursion into China)?" he asked our Chinese friend.

"Yes, yes," my reticent friend replied.

"You see, he knows what I mean!" Japanese and Americans are kindred spirits, he assured us, and the former love to fight just a much as they did during World War II. Japan's continued refusal to acknowledge its WW II atrocities were a harbinger of future aggression, for which China must be prepared.

I do not recount this episode to dispute the accuracy of our driver's information or the logic in his interpretations. In some cases, his facts were accurate. In other cases, they were not. His interpretations speak for themselves.

I cite this experience because it is unique in my interaction with China and because I fear the consequences of more similar episodes. Over the course of four years studying China, and approximately four months on the ground in the People's Republic, this cab ride has proven the only case of severe anti-Americanism that I have encountered. I obviously meet people all the time who find fault with U.S. foreign policy (I often find myself agreeing with them). But these Chinese simultaneously acknowledge the benefits of the American political system and the importance of U.S. engagement internationally. Whatever criticism leveled at China from abroad, we must be fair and acknowledge that anti-Americanism in China is low.

The prospect of ubiquitous anti-Americanism in China is troubling. Chinese popular opinion matters to the Chinese leadership, and anyone who disagrees need only examine student opposition to various Chinese government and foreign government policies in the 1980s and 1990s. Popular sentiment will continue to influence Chinese policy toward the United States and our allies. And whether we like it or not, China is relevant to a series of important U.S. interests at home and abroad, including intellectual property rights, U.S. manufacturing, nuclear proliferation, global warming, and Darfur. The list goes on.

I hardly pretend to provide insight into U.S. policy toward China--I am certainly not suggesting that the United States surrender our policy interests. Rather, my goal is to provide a simple peek into anti-Americanism in China, and to explain why we should care about it.

For further reading on anti-Americanism in China and relevant policy issues, see James Fallows: http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/james_fallows/2007/10/ultimatums_wont_move_china.html.