Chapter 2 introduction

I am a lucky person. At 9:30 am on April 15, 1983, I took Civil Aviation Flight 973 from Beijing Capital Airport to Thailand via Guangzhou. This was my first time going abroad. 23 years later, at 8:50 am on July 17, 2006, I took Ukraine Airlines flight 218 from Sofia to Ukraine via Belgrade, and entered my 100th country.If you add the special regions such as Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan that I have been to, I have visited 106 countries and regions so far. In the mid-1980s, I had the honor of serving as an English translator for Deng Xiaoping, the supreme leader of China’s reform and opening up. I personally experienced his talent and bearing as an outstanding politician, as well as his taste and personality as an ordinary person; On a broader scale, I feel the decisive influence of his thoughts on the rise of China and the significance of his wisdom in solving the challenges facing China and the world.

My world series can be roughly divided into four categories: The first category is "state visit".When I was an interpreter in the 1980s, I had the opportunity to accompany many Chinese leaders to many countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the United States.Looking back, I often feel a lot of emotion. The second category is to participate in various international conferences.Later, I went to work in international organizations, did translation, conducted research, and participated in international conferences held around the world. It can be said that it was a kind of knowledge feast and I benefited a lot.

The third category is academic visits.The rise of China has touched the world and attracted great attention from the academic circles of various countries. He has discussed, exchanged, and even debated various issues related to China's rise with colleagues from various countries, which has enriched his own knowledge and thoughts. The last category is pure tourism, which allows the mind to fly freely and experience the elegance and charm of different civilizations. Thinking about it carefully, such a classification is unnecessary, because "state visits" are not all "state affairs", and they are tourists when they relax.Academic visits are not always academic either, and after conferences come travellers.Along the way, everything in the end turns into my own feelings, memories and thoughts, and of course the lingering Chinese feelings. No matter where I go in the world, what I see and hear will always be associated with my own country, and I will never forget it. Therefore, some kind of perception and cognition is obtained.

The ancients said that "reading thousands of books, traveling thousands of miles".I don’t know how many people have been influenced by this concept in ancient and modern times. Today, I boldly act as one of them. While doing knowledge, I also travel all over the world, naturally seeing, hearing, and thinking.As a Chinese, through traveling, thinking, reading, writing, and communicating with the whole world, it is both a rare opportunity and a mental challenge.This rare mental journey is worth sharing with everyone. I sometimes think, now is the era of information explosion, and it seems that a person can understand the affairs of the world without going abroad. Do I have to know more about foreign countries than those who go abroad less?Not necessarily, I have indeed met people with extremely high IQs like Deng Xiaoping in my life. They don’t go abroad much, but their grasp of the outside world is amazing; but I also believe that this situation is limited to a few people with IQs and savvy Extremely high people, mortals like me, still believe in what they have seen with their own eyes.

Along the way, I really have a lot of feelings to share with readers, but there is always a beginning and an entry point for everything.After repeated consideration, I decided to use my feelings and thoughts on the rise of China as an entry point to write my first book after returning from a hundred countries.China's rapid rise has touched the world and touched many sensitive nerves in the world.I try to start from a relatively broad international perspective, combine my perception of Deng Xiaoping's thinking, and research on international politics, and try to use plain Chinese discourse to talk about China and the world, especially to discuss hot issues related to China's rise. No matter how sharp the problem is, it will not be avoided.I believe that as the world enters the "post-American era", the world will also enter the "post-American discourse era". Chinese people should use their own values ​​while absorbing the wisdom of the world for their own development and understanding of international issues. Examine it and explain it in your own words.A nation that can only use other people's words has no weight in the world. The process of China's rise must also be a process of the rise of Chinese words, and this crisis-ridden world really needs the wisdom of the Chinese people.

The fate of a country is a bit like life.If a person wants to live a meaningful life, it is best to have some kind of overall grasp of his life, so that he can live a confident, fulfilling and happy life.Similarly, if a nation really wants to rise, it also needs to have an overall understanding and grasp of its past, present and future, so that this nation can have a far-sighted vision, be fearless of wind and waves, and have a prosperous national destiny.On some key issues related to the rise of China, the more countries I traveled, the more comparisons and perceptions I formed. I actually thought that such comparisons and perceptions could be regarded as a kind of overall cognition and grasp of the development of things, so Don't think superficially, believe in the straight book, in order to discuss these issues that surround the heart with all those who care about China's destiny.I hope what I have written is useful to everyone.