The strange marriage called Chimerica

It was my first real encounter with the Chinese. Sure, I'd known a few Chinese people; I'd learned some Chinese history in college; I'd read a lot about China in the news; and Chinese food had always been my favorite. But it was a different experience altogether to go to the Chinese embassy with my visa application in hand — not knowing what would happen.

I had two black marks against me: my citizenship (American) and my profession (journalist). To go as a tourist, I had some questions to answer and some convincing to do. In the end, they let me in. I just had to pay four times the usual visa fee and wait a week longer than the citizens of any other country.

The word is "symbiosis"

China and the United States have a puzzling relationship — a marriage of convenience, a symbiosis. Their size and influence put them in a category all their own (what Scottish historian Niall Ferguson calls "Chimerica"). They help each other to maintain this status — China by holding America's debt, America by moving most of its manufacturing to China. Yet the two superpowers are deeply suspicious of each other. Each is the main focus of the other's espionage efforts.

The U.S. has tried to contain China's progress by placing an embargo on high technology. Until the late 1990s, this included things like computer processors that could theoretically be used to guide missiles. China fought back by acquiring Western technology through other sources and copying it. A loosening of the sanctions now makes it possible for us, ironically, to buy (Western-designed) processors made in China.

A lot in common

Often when two people or entities are suspicious of each other, it's because they share a lot of similarities they don't want to acknowledge. Think about this:

• Past meddling by foreign powers has led both countries to adopt an official policy of regional hegemony — the U.S. since the 1820s, China since the 1980s. Both countries feel they are the rightful leaders of their part of the world, or of the whole world.
• Both The New York Times and the China Daily are worried about the other country's naval exercises in the western Pacific.
• Both America and today's China are built on ingenuity. Both will do whatever they feel is necessary to advance their country and protect their interests.
• Both countries are obsessed with progress, power, prestige and pride. In the 20th century, for example, the U.S. had most of the world's tall buildings; now five of the ten tallest are in mainland China.
• Both countries use a language rich in idioms. Understanding either one requires learning a lot about the culture.
• Both countries are very concerned about negative PR abroad. Foreign criticism of the U.S. is portrayed as "anti-Americanism", while the protests against the Olympic torch relay were portrayed in China as a form of anti-Chinese racism.
• Newspapers in both countries tend to report only disasters (natural and man-made) happening in the other.
• And of course, both countries are world powers — the U.S. through its network of military bases, China through its infrastructure projects in the Third World that are earning local sympathy.

Now, I'm not saying that life in these two countries is in any way similar, nor that their citizens share the same values. Our ideological differences do lead to very different solutions to our respective problems. But in front of others, we argue like old rivals, or an old married couple. A secret admiration — of China's progress, of America's influence — is at work that neither side wants to admit.

I agree with Tom Friedman, the New York Times columnist and observer of globalization, when he says that the Chinese are watching and learning from us in the West. We mustn't fail to learn from them as well, he says. I'd add that the first step is to go there and have a look around.