Remarks by former president of the United States- Nxion at the university of International Business and Economics美国前总统尼克松在对外经济贸易大学的讲话
I made my first trip to China in 1972, Premier Zhou Enlai and I shook hands as i came off the airplane. And that handshake began a new era in relations between China and the United States. And later he said to me, "Your handshake came over the vastest distance in the world- twnety-five years of no communication." That vast distance is one we have now crossed. We have communication, cooperation, trade, investment, tourism, cultural and scientific exchanges. For example, in 1972, there were no Americans as tourists in the PRC; last year there were over 100000. In 1972, there were no students from the PRC studying in the United States; last year there were over 12000. In 1972, there was no trade between the two countries; last year trade went over 6 billion dollars. That's an indication of what has happened in just 13 short years. In rencent years, China has been working hard and creatively at evolving a system that works for China at this period of its history and this stage of its development. The progress for example that China has made in just the 13 short years since I was first here has greatly exceeded the expectations, and they were farily high, that I had at that time. As we look to the future, to the next century, China's system will continue to evolve and change. All systems do. Our own American economic system is very different from what it was a century ago, and even different from what it was when I reached what Amercian call the age of maturity a half a century ago. As I look ahead to the 21st century - to your century - I see one world. But the world I see is not a world without differences between nations or peoples. Rather, it is one in which we all recognize that we have profound differences and we must learn to live with our differences rather than dying over them. I do see a world without nuclear weapons. But I do see one where the awesome power of these weapons has made world war obsolete as an instrument of policy. For that reason, I do not believe there will be a third world war. I see a world where the honor of being called great is bestowed not on the world's warriors but on the world's peacemakers. And I see one world, but not a world drab in its uniformity but one world enriched by its diversity. I see an open world, a world of open cities, open skies, open minds and open hears; a world where our enemise are not other peoples but the common enemise of all mankind: poverty, hunger, misery, disease, and injustice whichever they may exist in the world. And I see a world in which there will continue to be conflict but where competition between nations will build rather than destroy - where it will be a force for peace and progress rather than a force for war. Some will question my optimism. But of this one thing I am quite sure: without cooperation between the Chinese People and American people, there is no hope that the 21st century in which you will live will be a century of peace and progress for all peoples. This is what I hope for China. This is what I hope for the world. This is what I hope for you, the new generation of China, whose task it is to help to build and to meet those goals. |