The more closed the United States is, the more open we are. The more the United States wants to close its doors and fight a trade war, the more we need to approach the world with an open attitude.
Recently, two things have attracted my attention. One is that Donald Trump announced that he would impose a 25% tariff on Canada and Mexico, and the trade barrier of the United States was further raised.
Another thing is that we have further expanded the scope of visa free countries, including Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Malta, Estonia, Latvia, and Japan. Not only has the visa free scope been expanded, but the duration of visa free stay has also been extended, from the previous 15 days to the current 30 days.
Seeing these two incidents, some domestic public opinion has started again, saying that the United States is truly a world hegemon and can sanction whoever it wants. On the other hand, we have to kneel and lick those small countries with a low posture. Seeing such remarks makes me very headache stricken because many people’s views on the problem are too superficial and do not see any deeper level.
Let’s take the expansion of visa free access this time as an example. Why do we need to grant visa free access to these small countries?
The most superficial level of thinking is to attract them to travel and boost our economy.
According to data statistics, after we announced the expansion of visa free access, the search volume for destinations in China in Europe and Japan has significantly increased, with an increase of 65% and 112% respectively. The number of flight inquiries to China has also increased significantly. What does this mean? It means that more foreigners are coming to China to travel. They bring money to China to spend and increase income for Chinese people. This is a good thing.
Of course, more than 90% of people can think of this level of thinking, but many people may not necessarily think of it on the second level. Recently, there was a very important news that foreign media predicted that China’s trade surplus is likely to exceed $1 trillion by 2024, and China’s trade surplus alone accounts for 40% of the total global trade surplus.
Is this a great thing? Of course, because this indicates that Made in China is sweeping the globe with particularly strong competitiveness, which is definitely a good thing. However, to be honest, such a huge trade surplus will inevitably raise concerns for other countries, because doing business with China almost always results in a deficit, that is, losing money. If all the money is earned by our country, what will other countries think?
So we must realize that we have basically reached the limit of simply making money by selling products. Even if we can still grow, the magnitude will not be too large. So how can we solve this problem? The answer is to further bridge the gap between China and the world through cultural attraction and personnel mobility.
The most typical cases are Japan and the United States.
Japan has a large number of fans around the world due to its unique anime culture. Every year, many foreigners go to Japan to travel by card, such as slam dunk masters and the scenic spot in your name, which is a popular tourist destination for foreigners to Japan.
By relying on the attraction of its unique culture, Japan can earn considerable income every year through tourism, and cultural attraction is not only about tourism, but also about attracting overseas groups’ attention to Japanese products, making it easier for Japanese manufacturing to sell well.
The United States is also in a similar situation. Due to its highly open immigration policies throughout history, a large number of people from Europe, Latin America, and Africa come to the United States every year for cultural exchanges. These people from all over the world are the best postcards to promote America. They spread the news of American prosperity and strength to all parts of the world, making everyone yearn for America.
After achieving this effect, no matter what products Americans launch, such as Apple phones, Hollywood movies, and pop music, they will immediately attract worldwide attention, thus bringing huge economic benefits to the United States.
Similarly, as China has developed to this point, it can be said without exaggeration that the physical manufacturing industry has reached its peak, and its hard power is unparalleled in the world. If we want to further develop, we must put effort into soft power. Therefore, further opening up to the outside world is necessary.
If you can’t think clearly, think about the flourishing age of the Tang Dynasty. At the peak of the Tang Dynasty, Chang’an City had a total population of one million, including tens of thousands of foreigners of all colors. A world power with all kinds of countries coming to Korea must be open rather than closed. This is the only way for us to go to the world. You can’t want to return to the top of the world while all countries come to Korea, and at the same time, keep foreigners out of the door, even travel is not allowed to come in. Do you think about it carefully?
Of course, in addition to the first two layers of consideration, there is also a third layer of consideration, which I have emphasized many times before, to counterattack the Western public opinion war.
Many people who have not traveled abroad may not be aware that the Western media’s smearing of us is beyond imagination. I would like to summarize their three common tricks:
The first trick is to downplay our achievements, such as the nationwide poverty alleviation and Chang’e’s launch, which are inspiring news in China. In Western countries, print media rarely report on them. Before the era of short videos, young people needed to deliberately search to find out that China had accomplished such great things.
The second tactic is to marginalize our news, even if our achievements are reported in online media, a section will be added next to it, saying that Russia or the United States may be stronger in this regard, making Western young people feel that what China has done is nothing more than that.
The third trick is that on the most influential television media, the West frequently and massively reports our negative news, such as people in mountainous areas of China who do not have access to water and electricity, and where there have been incidents of violence in China. The West is happy to report such negative news, even if they travel thousands of miles, they will send reporters to shoot on site, and then add a underworld filter. When they go back, they will talk big.
Through these three media channels and three different propaganda methods, many people in the West lack goodwill towards China. In their eyes, China is just a poor, backward, closed, and even somewhat dangerous large North Korea.
So you can see from the videos of many western bloggers who came to China to travel. They came at the beginning with fear, fear, and even a sense of death. Especially after several years of epidemic, due to epidemic prevention, we temporarily closed many external channels. The western media took the opportunity to become very dark, which led many foreigners to turn pale in the middle of the conversation.
Therefore, based on the current situation, we will launch the 144 hour visa free landing policy, and then keep expanding the scope of visa free countries, which is actually to use facts to counter the western public opinion lies. When a large number of foreigners come to China, they see a civilized, developed and open China, they will talk with relatives and friends when they go back, and then gradually reverse the adverse public opinion situation for us, until one day the world can treat us fairly and objectively, the exchange in China will become a craze.
In fact, you can see from the data that the number of foreigners visiting China has increased significantly this year, and foreigners are often seen in major scenic spots.
I know some people will raise doubts again. Since this move is so effective, why not use it earlier?
There are two reasons for this. Firstly, Tiktok’s popularity abroad. Before the advent of the short video era, the West had a negative impression of us, and many people had no motivation to travel to China. Even if you let go of visa free travel, they dare not come, just like now when you are asked to travel alone to India, you are still a bit scared.
So if you want to make the visa free effect more obvious, there is a very important premise, that is, you must first reverse the impression of foreigners. How to reverse it? The answer is that a large number of foreigners began to send the objective facts of China to the Internet in the form of videos, which made many young people see a different China. Only in this way can they be interested in going to China.
This is an important reason why the United States wants to ban Tiktok. Because the emergence of Tiktok is equivalent to opening up a fourth media channel in addition to the paper media, network media and television media, which makes it impossible for Americans to control public opinion, seriously affecting their hegemony of public opinion, so they will start to fight against Tiktok.
In other words, you can fully understand that Tiktok has laid a mass foundation, and then we will introduce the policy of 144 hour transit visa free and expand visa free countries, which will lead to the tide of foreigners coming to China. These two things complement each other.
Now that we understand this, let’s take a look at the second important reason.
Why do we now have the confidence to increase our efforts in opening up to the outside world? The answer is because the changes in China in recent years can be said to be rapid. It is not an exaggeration to say that compared to 2014 ten years ago, China has undergone qualitative changes now.
If you don’t believe it, what were young people in China discussing in 2014?
We are discussing how much difference there is between the Liaoning ship and the US aircraft carrier battle group.
We are discussing whether to buy a car from BBA or Lexus Porsche.
We are discussing whether a phone is better from Apple or Samsung.
At that time, the internet was filled with American, Japanese, and German propaganda. When it came to foreign countries, they were more advanced; when it came to ourselves, they were poor and backward, and we still needed to work hard. We have not forgotten such a public opinion environment.
But now, in just ten years, we have 055, Beidou, three stealth fighter jets, nine day drones, and mechanical wolves flooding the screen everywhere. Huawei’s HarmonyOS system is squeezing the Apple market, domestic cars are exported overseas and ranked first in the world. China’s large aircraft C919 has also been mass-produced, and even in the field of AI, we are at the forefront of the world.
Whether it’s in the military, aerospace, chip, civilian automotive, shipbuilding, or AI fields, we all seem to have taken a break and experienced a technological explosion in just a few years.
What Chinese young people are discussing online today is:
Can China’s full-scale production capacity push Asia horizontally?
Can the 055 destroyer defeat the US aircraft carrier battle group?
Where have Samsung phones and many foreign cars gone?
Even Japan, which used to be incredibly powerful in our eyes, has now become an unworthy opponent, and even the world hegemon, the United States, we want to try our best and bend our wrists.
Although there are still many weak bones in China, it is an undeniable fact that young people are more confident in external affairs compared to ten years ago.
The teacher has a saying that goes, ‘Clean the house before treating guests.’ The reason why we need to increase our efforts to open up to the outside world now is ultimately because we have become stronger and more developed. Whether it is public security, infrastructure environment, or technological level, we are not lagging behind the world, and even in some fields, we are at the forefront of the world. In this situation, we open up our doors and invite foreign friends to travel to China, and they will become our best promotional cards.
This approach will not only cause the public opinion lies that the West has been painstakingly cultivating for many years to collapse, but also make the connection between Chinese and Western people increasingly close. In extreme cases in the future, it will become increasingly difficult for the West to completely decouple from us.
Moreover, at a time when the American people, the world’s hegemon, are fighting a trade war, erecting trade barriers and reversing the course of history, we are showing a more open and inclusive attitude, which is itself a signal to the world, that is, who can lead the trend of human civilization and who is destined to be swept into the dustbin of history.
