While I was in college during the last decade of the Cold War, I used to head down to the basement of my university library to read Pravda. A nice little NROTC guy, I wasn’t anywhere near a communist … but I wanted to read what the Soviets wanted people to think about them, and what they thought about the USA. Along those lines, everyone should make an effort to read outside the standard Western press; read the state controlled press of rising powers. After a while, you can start to get an outline of what is or is not exciting or worrying them. Just the edges and shadows, but it is there. You can start to see their insecurities, and what they think are yours; what they see as weakness, and what they see as a threat. 
Take a read of this abstract of published in Global Times, a subsidiary of People’s Daily, owned by the Chinese Communist Party. Nothing gets published by accident. There is a reason they liked the comments made by a professor in the Practice of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, Kishore Mahbubani, at the May 9th Munk Debates in Toronto. Just a couple of pull quotes;
Out of the world’s population of 7.5 billion people in the world, only 12 percent live in the West. 88 percent live outside the West. So if you want to judge China’s international behavior – let me emphasize that, international behavior – ask yourself how is the 88 percent of the world reacting to China’s rise? And amazingly, they’re welcoming it, they’re cooperating with it. … You know the only major power on planet Earth that actually has not gone to war in 40 years and has not fired one bullet in 30 years across its borders is China. By contrast, under the peaceful presidency of president Barack Obama, in the last year of his presidency, the US dropped 26,000 bombs on seven countries. These are facts. Am I being an apologist for the Chinese government? Go and check the facts. …which society is progressing forward and which society is regressing? Let me just tell you three important facts about regression. Point No.1, the only major developed society where the average income of the bottom 50 percent has gone down over the past 30 years is the US. Fact No.2, I mention this in my book, two-thirds of American households don’t have $500 cash for emergency purposes. I think two-thirds of Chinese households may have gotten theirs already. Fact No.3, and this is the most damaging fact. Believe me, it was a great personal shock to me when Guantanamo happened. How is it that the world’s biggest defender of human rights became the first major developed country to reintroduce torture?
Yes, we could go on for thousands of words about slant, the fidelity of Chinese statistics, and double standards, but we would be missing the point. Can you read what the real message is here? I hope so, as this last pull quote is exactly what the CCP wants you to ponder.
What is this window of opportunity? While it is still No.2, and while it is still willing to play by the rules, this is the moment for the US to actually work with China, to strengthen the multilateral order and to serve as a good role model. But unfortunately, as you know, the US is doing the opposite and is walking away from the Paris Climate Agreement, has withdrawn from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, is walking away from the Transpacific Partnership and has withdrawn from the Human Rights Council… I can keep going on and on.
If you think that is in the American interest, you haven’t been paying attention.
