Aug 17, 2010 12:29pm
By Jason M. Bordui, President, Balanced Growth Enterprises, LLC (August 17, 2010)
On August 5, 2010, I attend a speech by Dr. Peter Zhao Xiao, a prominent Chinese economist and representative of the current Chinese government. Dr. Zhao Xiao contended that China was the leader in most aspects of human society through the 14th century. He also asserted that China plans to return to its dominant role in human society for the next 500 years (that would be the year 2020 to the year 2520). He noted that China is right on track to reach this goal as it recently passed Japan as the world's #2 economy and projects that it will surpass the United States as the largest economy in the world in the next 10 years (by 2020).
To reach the goal of re-establishing itself as the dominant nation in the world, the Chinese government commissioned Dr. Zhao Xiao to study the economy of the United States of America. Dr. Zhao Xiao's most notable conclusion was that the USA has a robust economic system that was built upon a foundation of strong values. He was even more specific to note that America's success was established upon a foundation of Christian values. This value system enabled America to mobilize around a shared vision and to export these values throughout the world in the form of the "American Dream."
Dr. Zhao Xiao continued to explain that China plans to not only have the world's leading economy; it will also have more Christians than any other nation in the world in the near future. The only limitation to these aspirations is that there is no such thing as the "Chinese Dream" and this is why China is looking to apply American values as a significant ingredient to its future plans.
Should China be commended for its understanding of the importance of American values? Or, should Americans be concerned that the world's next Super Power knows so much about the fabric of the historic prosperity of America? The answer to both questions is unequivocally, yes.
I was encouraged by Dr. Zhao Xiao's basic comprehension of human values, but I am far more troubled that the United States' seems to grapple with a shared understanding of its own greatness. America was made great by hard-working people with strong values, innovative companies, inspired leaders, loving families, and a deep and abiding love of the American Dream. Not only that, America was founded upon a declaration that "they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" and a pledge as "one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." China is correct; America was founded upon Christian values.
But, what does America think?