Letters | Blaming the Chinese for Beijing’s flaws is not just lazy. It’s wrong

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In the heat of rising tariffs and tough talk about China, it is more important than ever to distinguish between a government’s policies and a people’s humanity. The failure to do so not only clouds our judgment but risks deepening the fractures that diplomacy was built to heal.

Political tensions often produce more noise than clarity. United States President Donald Trump asserted in a recent interview that tariff negotiations with China were under way, and even that Chinese President Xi Jinping had called him personally. Yet almost immediately, China’s Foreign Ministry issued a sharp rebuttal: “The US should stop creating confusion.”

My own understanding of China goes deeper than political headlines. During my studies at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, I encountered ancient Chinese teachings that reshaped my world view. For someone raised Baptist in a small town in upstate New York, philosophies like Confucianism, Taoism and the Yinyang school were initially difficult to grasp. Yet their wisdom ultimately transformed how I see the world.