I have often felt that America and China have traded places since the 19th century. Back then, America (and the West) was sheltered by the strong arms of science and technology. China was a backward state with an outdated political system that bitterly resisted political reform, education reform and Western science. History recalls that political leaders in China then arrogantly asserted the superiority of their “civilization,” believing they (who were the world’s most powerful civilization for centuries) had nothing to learn from the West. History taught us what happened next.

Today, the roles have reversed. The Chinese have embraced Western science, Western knowledge, Western economic systems, and are a superpower sheltered by the strong arms of science and technology that made us strong. America, on the other hand, is rejecting those very things. Too many Americans have become new “Qing Dynasty Mandarins”, stubborn in their believe that our system is perfect, intransigent to reform, refuse to learn from other countries even when demonstrable evidence show others are doing things better than we do on, for example, healthcare, education, infrastructure investment.