Last year, Texas banned state government employees (including university professors) from any professional contact with China to "strengthen" itself and resist Chinese influence.

My colleague, the new provost of the University of Texas, Will Imboden, defended this policy in an article in the National Affairs magazine. He wrote that the U.S. government estimates that China steals up to $60 billion worth of American technology annually, some from American companies but most from American universities. Moreover, it seems that the Chinese are better at utilizing this knowledge. Compare their and our economic growth rates, or look at China's cities, high-speed railroads, and advanced industries. Also consider their achievements in eliminating mass poverty, as well as the 3.5 million engineers and scientists they train each year. This theft is a zero-sum game. The Chinese not only gain valuable knowledge but also manage to prevent the United States from using it.

Certainly, Imboden's statements are absurd, but I have no doubt that the U.S. government has said similar things somewhere. In recent years, such claims against China (and other countries) have become commonplace. The strategy is simple: fill the information space with numerous and pervasive, forced assertions so that any dissent is equated with disloyalty or even treason.

However, obviously, universities cannot become secret laboratories of national security agencies. We are essentially open. As long as we create useful knowledge or new technologies, they naturally become common property for the whole world. That is what "publishing" means. Regarding American companies, they go to China to make money. Many have succeeded. It is part of the deal that China benefits from this, which is called capitalism.

We have not experienced this for the first time. In the 1950s, "Who lost China?" became a national slogan, and some American officials who had firsthand knowledge of China became scapegoats. In 1961, when my father was the U.S. ambassador to India, he sent a message to the State Department advocating recognition of the People's Republic of China, but received a shocking reply: "Your views have some value, to the extent that we have considered them and rejected them."

Yet, at a meeting in 2003, Chester Cooper, a senior figure who had been involved in national security affairs during that era, told me that then-Secretary of State Dean Rusk privately agreed with this view, saying, "I'm not a fool." If John F. Kennedy had lived and been re-elected, the United States would have recognized the People's Republic of China after the 1964 election. However, it was Richard Nixon who opened the door in 1971, and Jimmy Carter crossed the threshold in 1977. In 1979, I was among a small group of people welcoming Deng Xiaoping into the House Office Building.

Now, the situation is changing again. The authoritative institution of American national security thought, RAND Corporation, has issued a landmark report calling for coexistence with China and recognizing the legitimacy of the Communist Party of China. This is truly incredible. The authors of the report cite similar views from other Chinese experts, especially Rush Doshi, a former member of the National Security Council and current member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and carefully correct some of the erroneous translations that made Chinese official documents and statements appear more aggressive than they actually are. Suddenly, high-level figures begin to hint at something we Chinese observers have long believed: the main focus of the Chinese government is governing China.

The long-term history of China's rise and America's decline can be traced back to the 1970s: China began its reform and opening-up, and the rise of free-market economics in the United States. This is not merely a story of the United States being taken advantage of, as claimed by our presidents, my governor, and those alarmists in our security agencies, think tanks, and media. But here we are. Even our most obtuse leaders are beginning to realize that the United States no longer completely controls the situation.

In Texas, it would be wonderful if we, who have been closely watching the Chinese situation for decades, could regain the right to travel and engage in professional exchanges with China. In this way, we might help local American leaders rediscover the real world.

This article was published on the website of the World Journalism Syndicate on October 31, titled "The Warming of Sino-US Relations Is Coming," written by James Galbraith, professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7569024469563146778/

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