{"id":5979,"date":"2022-07-08T00:24:52","date_gmt":"2022-07-08T04:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chinacenter.net\/?p=5979"},"modified":"2023-04-07T09:12:52","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T13:12:52","slug":"deja-vu-chinas-relations-with-the-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinacenter.net\/2022\/china-currents\/21-2\/deja-vu-chinas-relations-with-the-west\/","title":{"rendered":"Deja Vu: China’s Relations with the West"},"content":{"rendered":"
The early 1980s saw the first glimpses of China’s domestic reforms and interactions with people and economies outside China. This loosening was dangerous territory for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which had ruled with state control and minimal outside influence for several decades. But the top leadership, led by Deng Xiaoping, had decided that if China did not learn from, and interact with, the rest of the world, it would never develop. The economy had tanked, food was scarce, and the country was far behind in technologies and institutional development. Deng traveled to New York City in 1974 to attend a special session of the United Nations, where the backwardness of China was brought home to him. It was another turning point in Chinese history where policy shifted from ti <\/i>\u2014 substance or essence (\u4f53) \u2013 to yong<\/i> \u2013 function or usefulness (\u7528).1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n Based on my experiences in China over the years, I saw a growing shift toward practicality, but today we see another reversal \u2014 to the reestablishment of \u4f53 as primary. Along with that reversal, foreigners’ role in China’s development is also changing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Living in Nanjing in the Early 1980s<\/b><\/p>\n