China Friend or Foe was written by Hugo De Burgh, who is a Professor of Journalism at the University of Westminster and Director of the China Media Center. He was first in China at the end of the Cultural Revolution and I found his book was quit interesting. Actually I was amazed by his good knowledge about China and neutral perspective on China’s rapid growth. He well described China’s politics, Business, Culture, and society. I just went through the political part so far, which surprised me that a foreigner could figure out china’s complicated political system, which is far different from western world and what’s more, he can describe it thoroughly and make objective comments on a few hot political issues, including the Sino-US relationships.

However, there are still several points I could not agree. For example, the author mentioned “ In fact, innumerable foreigners, admiring China, in the hundreds years before 1949, contributed hugely to the development of China’s schools, universities, welfare institutional and government. Unfortunately, theses contributions have been forgotten as historical memory has been poisoned.”

I admit that foreigners did contribute somehow to the development of Chinese democracy and capitalization. Without these intruders, China could hardly step into the process of capitalization and probably stayed in feudalistic society much longer. However, as a foreigner, he could hardly experience the pain the Chinese had during those crude wares. And he did not see the crude behaviors those invaders did to Chinese people and how many families were destroyed, how many people were killed, how many women were raped. Moreover, he did not see how much valuable cultural bequests were stolen or ruined. As a scholar, I can understand his calmness and objective approach. But as a human being, how can I refrain feeling hurt, and myself from being angry when some told me these invaders contributed to our country.

The author also criticized Chinese nationalism, which made us overact to Japanese history textbook issues and 1999 “when the US accidentally bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade”. In my personal opinion, western world and USA are kind of feared by Chinese nationalism in the sense that they can hardly solidify their people like China, since in democratic countries; people can have their own opinion on government and war. Thus, I am kind of pro nationalism and I even think we are still lacking this spiritual, because China is still in its construction and needs several generations of Chinese people to contribute to their country. However, at the same time, we can see many Chinese young people who chase for material life and neglect of the responsibility to our country and society. Therefore, the reaction to Japan and US was not too much, on the contrary, was not even enough, for there were so many people did not even care about that.

Even though I am kind of support nationalism, I do not mean to use military power and be hard to other nations. I like the author’s idea that China is now using soft power to influence the world. We Chinese will be well educated and act as responsible world residents in the world. I like the new generation of Chinese leaders and I am quite confident of their leadership. I feel that , Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao are both pragmatic persons and they will lead China develop herself rationally. And, me , will try my best to contribute to my country.