American and Chinese presidents do not really know how to talk to each other. They are like computers running on different operating systems.” That was the verdict once offered to me by a US official, who has watched many US-China summits from close quarters. So while both sides stress that last week’s meeting between Presidents Xi Jinping and Barack Obama was constructive, I have my doubts. For China and America have profoundly different ways of looking at the world. I see five big contrasts.
“美中首腦并不真正知道彼此間要如何交談,他們就像運行著不同操作系統(tǒng)的計算機(jī)。”一位近距離觀察過多次美中峰會的美國官員曾經(jīng)這樣告訴我。因此,盡管中美雙方強(qiáng)調(diào),此次訪美的中國國家主席習(xí)近平與美國總統(tǒng)巴拉克?奧巴馬(Barack Obama)的會晤是建設(shè)性的,我仍不免有些懷疑。因為中國和美國看待世界的方式截然不同。我發(fā)現(xiàn)中美觀念存在五大差異: