people-from-shanghai

"Chinese-American political scientist Pei Minxin’s “The Broken China Dream: How Reform Revived Totalitarianism” (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2026) is an autopsy report on a failing idea that few were willing to address: the belief that markets would weaken authoritarianism, that billionaires would push the Chinese Communist Party toward democracy, and that a rising middle class would seek elections rather than larger apartments. Pei dissects the myth with scholarly precision and the dry humor of someone who has watched Western policymakers cling to the same fantasies for 40 years."

"Priests must be firm in faith and charity. They are not just names, but are in fact priests, who show their love for the Lord in service to the faithful. Moreover, in a world full of temptations of consumerism and secularism, priests must face the challenges with ongoing spiritual formation."

"China is still developing country. Although we have made great achievements over the years, but we know the challenges are still there, huge challenges. We have to continue to work hard to solve all of these domestic problems. We have just lifted everybody out of absolute poverty, but we have to make sure they will not fall back into poverty. This is a very huge challenge. We're also doing our best to improve the environment, to respond to issues like climate change and all these natural disasters. We do have a large number of natural disasters in China, like the situation in the United States. So we are still focusing our efforts on domestic economic and social development to give people the possibility of a better life. Internationally, we stand for building together with other countries a global community with a shared future."

"I don't think we have an entirely new foreign policy. We have been very consistent in our foreign policy. It's an independent policy of peace. Of course we safeguard our sovereignty and independence. There's no doubt about that."

"Climate change is a global challenge. So what is at stake is the global community's interest, not only the interest of our two countries. Of course our two countries have to play an important role in international cooperation to confront this challenge. But this is a true global challenge."

"It is distressing to see how much damage has been done to our people-to-people exchanges. More and more Chinese students and scholars are questioning if the United States is still an ideal place for education; if academic research can survive political persecution. More and more Chinese tourists are worrying if their visa application would be rejected due to their political belief. More and more Chinese companies are wondering if the “level playing field” touted by the U.S. truly exists."

"Indeed, climate change is a global challenge. We are certainly ready to take part in international cooperation on climate change. But honestly, political climate also has an impact on the efforts to deal with the natural climate. When there is insufficient mutual confidence, mutual trust, mutual respect, how can we work together to confront such a global challenge? I don't think it's quite possible. Even for climate change itself, how will the U.S. and Western countries face their historical responsibility ever since industrialization? How will they shoulder their responsibility to help the developing countries to deal with this challenge? They still have to take actions. They still have to prove they are seriously committed. They are earnest about their international obligations. They still have to prove their sincerity."

"The United States will not willingly accept the rise of a great power with a very different social system, ideology, cultural traditions and even race."

"However, nothing can sever the friendly ties between the two peoples. Over the past year, I have been much busier than before the pandemic in taking part in various kinds of online meetings and talks, and I was often overwhelmed by the passion from both countries for greater exchanges and mutual understanding. There is no place for McCarthyism in the 21st century, and no one can push the two peoples back to the era of estrangement and isolation."

"Throughout its 100-year history, the Communist Party of China has always upheld its mission to pursue happiness for the people and rejuvenation for the nation. As China enters a new development stage, we will follow a new development philosophy and foster a new development paradigm. We are deepening reform and further opening up. We are striving to eliminate absolute poverty, protect the environment and address problems resulting from unbalanced and inadequate development. Everything we do is to meet the people’s aspiration for a better life, not to challenge or displace any country. We always believe in harmony in diversity between countries and in a community with a shared future for mankind."

"As the first country to sign the United Nations Charter after World War II, China has always dedicated itself to safeguarding and contributing to the international order. Over the past 75 years, China, the United States and the world have all gone through tremendous changes, and the growth of our bilateral relations has made significant contribution to the wellbeing of the two peoples and to world peace, stability and prosperity."

"The fact is, whenever you have a more involvement by the United States, you have greater instability, anywhere in the world. Look at the Middle East, look at some other places like Latin America. It's so obvious that when you are "rebalancing," or "pivoting," whatever the word might be, then there's more instability in that region."

"Every ounce of our peoples’ gains has been hard-won, and we must not allow them to be plundered by anyone or suffer losses due to our own carelessness, laziness and incompetence."

"In principle, we should not fight a war we are not prepared for, a war we are not sure of winning, a war of anger and attrition."

"Our goal is to meet the growing aspiration of the Chinese people for a better life. Our goal is not to compete with or replace any other country. This is never our national strategy. Hopefully, people could have a better understanding of this."

"We are always open for international cooperation. We are always committed to multilateral cooperation. But frankly, any such cooperation will have to be based on equality, mutual benefit and mutual respect. Otherwise, how can people cooperate with each other if they don't treat each other as equals? This is not our problem. This is the problem for Western countries. They still have to learn how to treat other countries, other races, other civilizations as equals. That's their problem, not our problem."

"I always believe the real foundation of China-U.S. relations is the friendship and mutual understanding between our peoples. So this is the root of state-to-state relations and there's such an infusion among American states, cities and towns and ordinary Americans to learn more about China, to develop friendship with Chinese people, to facilitate cooperation between our two countries."

"I've always believed that there is a strong element of racism in U.S. policy toward China, only some don't admit it, while others do. The U.S. would spare no effort to suppress, contain, divide and encircle China."

"First of all, China's development, China's growth, has been made possible by the hard work of the Chinese people and our more than 40 years of reform and opening-up. This is a historical fact. To say otherwise is against the facts and certainly not fair to the Chinese people. Internationally, China always stands for the basic norms governing international relations as embodied in the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter. We always support multilateral institutions, the international system centered on the United Nations, including, for instance, the WHO, the WTO and a number of others. We already contribute more troops than other permanent members of the Security Council to the UN peacekeeping operations. We are already contributing a great deal to the global economic growth. We're ready to do more."

"It’s frustrating seeing things lost in translation. Some expressions are just so Chinese, or so English, you have to switch your thinking to English in order to write it with spontaneity and naturally."

"My dream is to write with both pens, in English and Chinese. I want to be more truthful and more straightforward when I write in English."

"I consider myself as having two selves. One self is Chinese and more delicate, more subtle, in terms of language. But the English self is young and audacious, and I say what I want to say."

"The pity is my expression in English is still young and not subtle enough. It’s not quite there. I read English very well, I know what good language is, and I want to reach the level of Nabokov and Conrad."

"Death is not completely tragic, perhaps it will be the completion of a redemption, or the beginning of a rebirth."

"It’s always challenging to portray foreign characters in a novel that is told mainly from a Chinese perspective or, you may say, in a Chinese story."

"I was disillusioned with the communists after they shot the students at the square. But now I'm disgusted with this country [US], as well. I thought the US was such a free land. I don't know where else I should go to now. I was just naturalised."

"But these days in China the authorities don’t grant my novels official book licensing numbers, so there’s no way to publish them in China. For that reason, I’m considering writing in English again. I swim every day, and when I swim, I feel that swimming laps back and forth is rather boring, so I think about a novel’s structure, its beginning, its characters and such, and that way I enjoy swimming more. After I have swum for a few more months, maybe I can talk more concretely about my next project."

"I don’t consider myself a successful screenwriter. I write screenplays because I have no choice. Often I’m simply the director’s last resort. I think that good novel-writing emphasizes characterization. It’s the personality that makes a good movie or novel character unforgettable."

"What makes me choose to write a particular story as fiction only depends on how interesting the story is and how much literary and aesthetic value I can see in it. In China, I don’t believe there are enough good literature and artistic works of aesthetic value that have been created on this war. So far, most are just crass propaganda. Literature doesn’t stop war, but it helps us understand what war can do to human hearts, and what worst or best behaviors war can trigger from us."

"I think Chinese is a difficult language to translate. Every time a draft translation of my work lands on my desk, I read it as if it were someone else’s work. I think I have the ability to stay detached and read my own work objectively, because when I read a translation draft, I rarely compare a sentence or a paragraph with my original work. The only time I do is when I discover a passage that doesn’t sound right. I don’t nitpick. It’s unfortunate that Chinese is a such a unique language, with origins so different from Western languages, so every time I read a translation, I feel something is lost, some of the strength or color."

"Of course, the vision of many works, such as the sense of picture and imagery, is actually unconscious by the writer. If the writer is conscious, he will write very artificial things."

"Don’t you think all women need to be admired, and welcome it? Admiration comes out of sensitivity and attention. Admiration includes paying attention to every detail of her body, decoding her body language, being sensitive to her subtlest gestures, being aware of all the expressions behind her expression. Women always feel that the people closest to them don’t understand, don’t comprehend them; that they lack the sensitivity that comes from true passion. Without this sensitivity and understanding, women lack a sense of security and don’t have the impulse to open their hearts completely."

"I like to play with words. In English, there's only one or two ways to say something; in Chinese there are 30 ways."

"I don’t think a novel has a function or a mission such as teaching somebody something. Instead, I think a novelist, by writing a story in the most vivid way, with poetry of language and by sharing it with the public, is willing to discover the truth about the story together with the readers. I have written stories about women suffering during wars and after wars, because I think that no matter who wins or loses, women on both side are the ultimate victims. Their bodies are the last part of a defeated country to be conquered, to be violated. They are the mothers, wives, and daughters of soldiers whose lost lives leave voids in the women’s lives, too deep to be filled."

"I realized that on the internet, you can hide in invisibility, so speaking with another person is kind of like speaking to another part of yourself, or like confessing to a priest of your own creation. So it becomes very daring, very frank, with a desire to give the burdens you carry in your heart to the other person, to have that other person share the burden. Secrets are very heavy, and someone who keeps a huge secret cannot live carefree. Over time, the corrosiveness of secrets can erode the most intimate relationships."

"Any suffering registered in your mind makes the emotion deeper. Maybe as a writer, I am constantly looking for tragedy."

"With books or film I want to commemorate our youth and the sacrifices they made. No matter how bitter the time was, there is always something beautiful. I want to satisfy my nostalgia and hope [my work] is touching enough to move audiences who may not have the same experiences."

"I think the Chinese are a people of survival. We are all wonderful survivors. We have risen in population during the last century, a century in which wars and famines have happened all the time. We have survived natural and political disasters almost every other year during the last sixty years. Without optimism I don’t think my people could live until today. I have gone to poor rural areas in China and seen destitute people joke and jest and laugh. I can imagine Chinese at the bottom of society, surviving like them over thousands of years. They must have a good sense of humor to go through hardship, and they must have learned how to steal whatever small pleasure they can to hold on to their dear life. I can’t imagine that any people could survive so many centuries of sorrow if to live only means to suffer. They have learned to steal joy, however little, out of the overall suffering."

"Under normal circumstances, I will not travel until a novel is finished.If there is an agreed itinerary, I will calculate the time at home, enough to write a lot of work. If I am writing a novel and encounter an urgent matter of traveling, I will be very upset and even painful. If more than half of the work has been written, and the tone of voice of this work has been formed, then I will feel better, otherwise, when I come back from a trip and sit at the desk, I want to give up because the tone is out of tone and the sense of language is weak."

"There are still many problems that aren't answered in China. As a writer, I have to keep searching for truth. The Chinese government still neglects many mistakes that were made during the Cultural Revolution and covering the facts. We need to revisit the old wounds."

"From early on, I was nourished in a literary way. I didn't realize that there was a writer already living in me"

"Good stories will keep haunting me for years. They will mature and want to be born. I can't help it."

"But it’s frustrating, that you know what good literature is but you cannot get it totally right."

"I believe all free thinkers, all artists and writers, should be independent from the mainstream so they won’t take the value system or moral standards of the mainstream for granted. They should take it as their duty to question and doubt the way of life and way of thinking of the majority. I am glad to live overseas as a Chinese writer, to remain independent and critical of both sides."

"As I mentioned previously, on the internet everyone enjoys being nameless, having the privilege and protection of anonymity. It is like a person hiding in a crowd; if the crowd curses, he curses along with it, and only by cursing along with it does he feel safe. But if he doesn’t curse along with it, he loses the crowd’s protection and is not safe. On the internet many people tell the truth, or attack others, or curse others, anonymously, thinking that if they can disappear into the vast ocean of the anonymous crowd they can feel safe."

"I don't see myself in the circle of Asian-American writers. My English is only that of a 15-year-old. I don't feel confident enough to write about contemporary America. China has been the subject of my writings, no matter where I am. However, I'm not completely Chinese - more an outsider of China's affairs. I have the right to speak on the subjects that I lived through"

"Sisters — those of you on the free soil of liberated China, to whom I can shout these greetings; those of you at home in your own land or region of people's democracy, who likewise can openly receive respects from this historic conference; those of you in the darkness of oppression, to whom I must whisper these salutations; to Asia's women, one and all — hail to your courage; a salute to your accomplishments; warm wishes for your continued progress toward complete emancipation!"

"In my mind, there is still the idea of ​​fraternity in the Bible."

"Comrade Soong Ching Ling dedicated herself entirely, in a time of seventy years, to China’s democracy and socialist cause and to world peace and development. She had been unwavering in her political principles in all circumstances, unyielding to threats and absolutely incorruptible by wealth. Her noble character and integrity will always be remembered. What’s more precious is that she progressed with the times, from being a great revolutionary democratic to a great communist."

"Soong Qingling personifies modern China… [She] personally participated in all stages of the Chinese revolution."