Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue: A83-W31
魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A83-W31
Release Date: July 31, 2004
发布日：2004年7月31日
Topic: Wei Jingsheng Writes Leading Article for Open Democracy: Letters to Americans
标题：给美国人的信 -- 魏京生先生给安玛丽.斯劳特院长的信发表在伦敦的“开放民主”
Language Version: original in Chinese/published in English (Chinese version at the end)
此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）
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Wei Jingsheng Writes Leading Article for Open Democracy: Letters to Americans
On July 29, Wei Jingsheng's article to Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter (at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University) was published as the leading issue of My America: Letters to Americans at OpenDemocracy.net. OpenDemocracy.net is a forum for debate on issues of global politics and culture. It is home to creative international dialogue that builds understanding through access to free thought and informed analysis. OpenDemocracy.net is based in London, with editors in New York and New Dehli. To see Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter's reply to Wei and other information on Open Democracy, please visit their website at: www.openDemocracy.net.
On July 30, Wei Jingsheng recorded his letter on BBC Today for broadcasting.
The following is Wei's letter published by OpenDemocracy.net.
-- -- --
Dear Anne-Marie Slaughter,
I am a foreigner now living in the United States, and observing American society and politics constantly. So my opinions may differ from those of most people who are not living in America, as well as from most Americans. For example, Americans often feel they have helped the whole world and sacrificed a lot for it. However, very many people in the world are not thankful. Rather, they criticise Americans. On all continents, including Europe, many people consider Americans to be rude, arrogant and conceited.
My first impression when I arrived in America was that these criticisms of Americans from outside were unfair. Just like people of other countries, most Americans are kind, fair, and very friendly. Of course, there are bad people as well. Americans may have more idealism than others. Americans can also be more pragmatic. Overall they are not better or worse than others.
However, many Americans leave non-Americans with the impression of arrogance and conceit. I have tried to understand why. My impression is that it stems from their patriotic nature, and from pride in their motherland as the strongest and wealthiest country in the world.
In addition, due to its geographic location and history, America has created the sense that it is unnecessary to care about other nations. This cultural isolation makes Americans often appear like peasants in remote villages. They seem to think that America is nine-tenths of the world, while their own individual state inside the US is about half of the world. The American media both reflects and reinforces this mental picture of most Americans. It is not a problem of individual politicians.
I once expressed this view of America during one of my speeches there. Afterwards, a former under-secretary of state kindly advised me not to mention it again if I want the United States to help me. He was right. Some Americans are less willing to help me than any other Chinese person. Some are more willing even to help the Chinese communists. This under-secretary understood Americans well. Because their country is strong, they are not willing to hear warnings, even from their friends.
This makes it harder for them to see their own mistakes. It has helped produce the difficult situation in Iraq and the scandal of prisoner abuse that made the whole world look down on Americans. Indeed, in exchange for a lot of money, blood and lives, they received unfriendliness in return.
Here, the current experience of America reminds me directly of the past experience of China. For most of the last two millennia, the Chinese were just as proud as the Americans. The Chinese were not tolerant of criticism, and as a result suffered painful lessons.
During a high point of the Tang dynasty [618-907 ce (common era)] - more than a dozen centuries ago - a man of Korean descent, the most favoured of the Chinese empress, was given command of the Central Asia region. His arrogant and ruthless behaviour in the region made the local protectorates and allied countries resentful. They combined to assist Muslim invaders to eject the Chinese occupation army. Their invasion eventually led to the rise of Islamic civilisation in the region, the end of the Tang dynasty civilisation, and the diminishing of the Christian influence that had just made its way into the western part of China.
Similar lessons have been repeated throughout Chinese history. The Chinese who held power thought they were very smart and did not learn how to treat their power modestly. My guess is that this has less to do with democratic or imperial systems than with patriotism. Extreme patriotism also guided Europe towards fascism.
Today, Americans are permitting their country to make mistakes. We cannot conclude that the civilisation of America is worse - or better - than Chinese civilisation and European civilisation. What we can conclude is that the overall speed of current affairs means that the period from the beginning of developments to their end result will be faster than in ancient times and will affect even larger regions.
Yours sincerely,
Wei Jingsheng
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中文版
Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue: A83-W31
魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A83-W31
Release Date: July 31, 2004
发布日：2004年7月31日
Topic: Wei Jingsheng Writes Leading Article for Open Democracy: Letters to Americans
标题：给美国人的信 -- 魏京生先生给安玛丽.斯劳特女士的信发表在伦敦的“开放民主”
Language Version: original in Chinese/published in English (Chinese version at the end)
此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）
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给美国人的信--魏京生先生给安玛丽.斯劳特女士的信发表在伦敦的“开放民主”
2004年7月29日，魏京生先生给安玛丽.斯劳特女士的信被总部设在伦敦的“开放民主”发表。他的信是用作其“给美国人的信”系列的启动本发表的。该系列为每周一次。
安玛丽.斯劳特女士(Anne-Marie Slaughter)为普林斯顿大学公众与国际关系学院的院长。有关她的回信及更多，请访问：www.openDemocracy.net。www.openDemocracy.net 是一个讨论全球政治和文化议题的开明园地。这个园地藉由国际间的交流对话，透过思想的释放和洞悉的见解去达成互相的了解。其总部设在英国的伦敦，同时有编辑在美国的纽约和印度的新德里。
2004年7月30日，魏京生先生接受了广受欢迎的BBC Today的采访并就他的信作了录音。
以下为魏京生先生给安玛丽.斯劳特女士的信。
-- -- --
安玛丽.斯劳特女士：
我是外国人，住在美国，观察美国的社会和政治。我的一些看法，可能不同于大多数不住在美国的人，也不同于美国人自己。比如美国人总以为自己帮助了全世界，为此做出了许多牺牲，而全世界的人都忘恩负义，不公正地批评美国人。但是我认为情形正好相反，全世界的人，以欧洲人为例，都是从比较公正的角度评论美国的。是美国人自己的做法，让人们感到美国佬的粗暴无礼和狂妄自大。
我到美国以后，第一个感觉就是，外界对美国人的批评有失公正。美国人和其他国家的人一样，大多数是善良的，公正的，待人相当友好，当然也同样有一批坏蛋。美国人的理想主义色彩也许比大多数国家的人们更强烈一些，但是美国人的实用主义色彩也更强一些。平均值和别人一样。
可是渐渐地，我也有些感觉，不少美国人多多少少会给人一种狂妄自大的印象。我一直试图解释为什么如此。到目前为止，我的印象是，这种狂妄自大来自对世界上最强大最富有的祖国产生的骄傲，是一种自然而然产生的爱国主义情绪，这种情绪，加上地理环境造成的不关心别人的文化传统，就变成了一种自大，它使美国人有点儿像乡下人，以为美国即是世界的中心，美国那几十个州差不多是世界的一半。看一下美国媒体的目录就知道这种心态的普遍性了。这不是个别政治家的问题。
在一次讲演时我谈到上述看法。一位前副国务卿私下里好心劝我：你如果想让美国人帮助你，就千万不要说这种话。果然，一些美国人最不愿帮助的中国人就是我，他们甚至宁愿帮助中共。看来这位副国务卿十分懂得美国人。他们由于自己国家的强大，就不愿意听哪怕是朋友的警告。当然，因此也看不见自己人犯的错误，因此造成了伊拉克的困境和虐囚的丑闻，使全世界都看不起美国人。的确这是用金钱和鲜血换来的人们的不友好。
在过去两千多年里的大部分时间里，中国人也曾经象美国人一样骄傲，一样容不得批评。结果他们遭受了惨痛的教训。十几个世纪以前在唐朝最强盛的时期，中国的一位高丽血统的大将军曾在中亚细亚胡作非为，使该地区的十几个属国和盟国离心离德，后来协助阿拉伯入侵者驱逐了中国驻军，最终导致了中世纪阿拉伯文明的崛起和唐朝文明的衰落，并且消灭了刚刚传入中国西部的基督教文明。
这样的教训在中国历史上重复了很多次，号称聪明的中国人仍然没有学会谦虚地看待自己的强大。这好像和有没有民主制度无关，只和爱国主义情绪有关。爱国主义情绪的极端高涨，是导致欧洲法西斯主义盛行和第二次世界大战的原因。欧洲人很容易把爱国主义和纳粹主义联系起来，原因即在于此。
总之，美国人正处在容忍自己的国家犯错误的阶段。美国文明是否能比中国文明和欧洲文明更好地避免衰落，现在还不能下结论。能下结论的是：现代的一切事物，发生的速度，发展至衰落的速度，都是一泻千里了。
-- 魏京生
2004年6月30日
（魏京生基金会首发，请注明出处。）
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