Probably the most important thing I learned from studying hundreds of years of history carefully and thousands of
years of history more superficially in a number of countries is to see things very differently than I did before I did
this study. I found shifting my perspective in this way to be similar to going to a much higher level in Google
Maps because I could see contours of history that I never saw before. I also could see that the same stories played
out over and over again for basically the same reasons, and I learned timeless truths about how the really big
movements take place and how to deal with them better. Besides affecting how I view things, I see how studying
so much history up to the present has greatly affected how the Chinese think relative to how Americans think.
From living in the United States, which is a country that has about 300 years of history (because Americans think
their history began when settlers from Europe arrived) and from living in a country that isn’t as much interested in
looking at history and the lessons it provides, I can see that the perspectives of Americans and the Chinese are very
different.
For example, to Americans 300 years is a very long time. For the Chinese it is very recent. While having a
revolution or a war that will overturn our systems is unimaginable to an American, it is inevitable to a Chinese
person (because the Chinese have seen that they have always happened and the Chinese have studied the patterns
of why they have happened). While most Americans focus on particular events, especially those that are now
happening, most Chinese, especially their leaders, see evolutions over time and put what is happening in the
context of them. While Americans fight for what they want in the present, most Chinese strategize how to get what
they want in the future. As a result of these different perspectives the Chinese are typically more thoughtful and
strategic than Americans, who are more impulsive and tactical. I also found Chinese leaders to be much more
philosophical (literally readers of philosophy) than Americans leaders. If you read their writings and their
speeches, you will find this to be true. Philosophies of how reality works and how to deal with it well are woven
into their thinking, which is expressed in their writings.
For example, in a meeting with Liu He soon after he had his first negotiation session with President Trump, he
conveyed his concerns about the possibility of US-China conflict. Liu He is Vice Premier of China responsible for
economic policy and also a member of the Politburo. We have known each other for many years, during which we
have had informal conversations about the Chinese and world economies and markets. Over those years we came
to develop a friendship. He is a very skilled, wise, humble, and likable man. He explained that going into his
meeting with Trump, he was concerned about how it would go, not because of the trade negotiations, which he was
confident didn’t have any issues that couldn’t be worked out, but because he was concerned about the worst-case
scenario where tit-for-tat escalations could get out of control and lead to more serious consequences. He referred to
history and gave a personal story of his father to convey his perspective that wars were so harmful and the damage
could be worse if we had another war today. He focused on the World War I example. We exchanged views on
long-term cycles in history and his belief in the concept of a community with a shared future for humankind. He
talked about reading the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu and Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant, and how he
realized that he should do his best, and then the outcomes would take their course. From there he gained his
calmness. I told him that I shared that perspective. I told him about the “Serenity Prayer” and suggested meditation
to him as a way of helping to obtain that perspective.
I tell this one story to share with you one Chinese leader’s perspective on the risk of wars and to also give one
example of the many interactions I’ve had with this leader and of the many interactions I’ve had with many
Chinese leaders and Chinese people in order to help you see them through my eyes and also to help you see the
issues through their eyes.
To understand how Chinese people, especially Chinese leaders, think and what they value, it is as important to
understand their history and the values and philosophies that have resulted from generations experiencing that
history and reflecting on it. Their history and the philosophies that have come from them, most importantly their
Confucian-Taoist-Legalist-Marxist philosophies, have a much bigger effect on how Chinese people, and especially
Chinese leaders, think than America’s history and its Judeo-Christian-European philosophical roots have on
Americans’ thinking. That is because the Chinese, especially their leaders, pay so much attention to history to learn
from it. For example, Mao, like most other Chinese leaders, was a voracious reader of history and philosophy,
wrote poetry, and practiced calligraphy—e.g., I was told by an esteemed Chinese historian that Mao read
Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance, the mammoth 294-volume-long chronicle of China’s history that
covers around 16 dynasties and 1,400 years of Chinese history, from around 400 BC to 960 AD, and the even more
mammoth Twenty-Four Histories several times as well as numerous other volumes about Chinese history and