Chinese Dream has taught me to never, ever say never
Never. Ever. Never, ever would I have imagined, when I first set foot in China 11 years ago at age 22, that I’d one day join a roundtable with the premier, offering suggestions on how to improve Chinese media.
I was especially moved when he thanked me for my contributions to China over the past decade through journalism and volunteer work. He pointed out Qinghai province’s Yushu prefecture, where I started a volunteer initiative five years ago, is a high-elevation area. He asked if I got altitude sickness. I said no. (I’m lucky. Every other volunteer I’ve known who has gone has.)
And he pointed out it’s a difficult region for a foreigner to start such an initiative.
My suggestions focused largely on how media can better tell the astonishing story of China’s poverty alleviation, which has hoisted more than 700 million people out of poverty over the past three decades.
This is an amazing feature of China’s legacy I’ve personally witnessed and engaged in.
Over the past decade, I’ve regularly traveled to remote communities throughout the country, journeying through nearly every province to not only cover poverty but also China’s solutions.
This mission brought me to the Wenchuan earthquake zone 15 times as a journalist and volunteer, and regularly to the Yushu quake zone, where I began another volunteer initiative five years ago.
I’ve since witnessed these and many other communities across the country be transformed through government initiatives.
This is a nation that has hoisted more people out of poverty faster than any other in history.
The unprecedented scale, scope and speed of poverty alleviation should be a blazing icon of the country when it comes to the question: What is China?
The question for journalists becomes: How do we better tell this story?
After the symposium, I sat at the premier’s table at a Lunar New Year’s reception dinner at the Great Hall of the People. I was seated next to State Councilor Yang Jiechi, who previously served as China’s ambassador to my homeland, the United States, before becoming foreign minister.
This evening was only one of many moments I’d never, ever imagined when I first arrived in China. The most recent had been becoming the youngest winner of the Chinese Government Friendship Award — the highest honor the central government bestows on foreigners for their contributions to China’s social and economic development — during last year’s National Day Celebrations.
Indeed, my time in this country has shown me the Chinese Dream is real — and belongs to the world. Even to people like me. China, it seems, truly is a land of possibility — a place where you should never say never. Ever.