How Can People in the United States and China Better Understand Each Other?

The decline in U.S.-China people-to-people exchange opportunities between the United States and China is widening the gap of cross-cultural understanding, leaving room for misconceptions in spite of many shared concerns and aspirations. How can people in the two countries learn about their differences and similarities, and what are the key things they need to know to better understand one another?

Zichen Wang joins the National Committee in an interview recorded on Feb 28, 2025, to explain the mixed signals both sides are sending to each other, and how both the United States and China view the world today.

Zichen Wang

Zichen Wang is the founder and editor of Pekingnology and The East is Read, two English-language newsletters on China from within China with tens of thousands of subscribers. He is a Research Fellow and Director for International Relations at the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), a leading non-governmental think tank in Beijing since October 2022. Before that, he worked for over 11 years for Xinhua News Agency, China’s state news agency, in two provincial capitals, Brussels, and Beijing.

Since July 2024, Zichen has been pursuing a mid-career Master in Public Policy at Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) on a full SPIA fellowship.

Zichen has been quoted and featured in Western mainstream media and invited to speak at the Swiss Parliamentary, Stockholm China Forum, Salzburg Global Seminar, State of Asia 2024, etc. He is also an alumnus of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), the U.S. State Department’s premier professional exchange program that identifies “current and emerging foreign leaders.”