I don't care about China because, as an American, I don't think a paper dragon is much of a threat. Why am I wrong?

我从不把中国放在眼里，作为一个美国人，我认为纸老虎能有多大的威胁呢。为什么说我错了？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

JenHo

Go visit China and you will get your answer. A high number Americans don't believe in their country medias about China.

Your brain isn't a garbage collector, know what is true and what is not, do a deep dive yourself.

你们自己去中国走走看看吧，答案就在眼前摆着。很多美国人都不相信他们国家的媒体对中国的报道。

你的大脑不是什么垃圾收集器，知道哪些是真，哪些是假，你自己得深入研究一下。

R.M.L.

Maybe the USA is even more of a paper dragon.

有没有一种可能，美国自己才是那只纸 老虎。

You do know that the USA military was in Afghanistan for 20 years and it still couldn't defeat the Taliban?

American troops did manage to kill a great many unarmed Afghan civilians though, mostly women and children.

你应该知道的吧，美国军队在阿富汗呆了20年，但最终还是没能打败塔利班？

但美国军队确实杀死了大批手无寸铁的阿富汗平民，其中有大部分都是妇女和儿童。

Jerry Mc Kenna

Related

Why are so many Americans ill-informed about China?

Relatively few Americans who don’t have Chinese family visit China. Few Americans understand or read Chinese.

为什么这么多美国人对中国如此孤陋寡闻？

如果没有中国亲友，美国人很难得会来中国。很少有美国人能听懂或读懂中文。

Chinese culture hasn’t been taught in the US. I studied fine art in college and I learned next to nothing. Compare this with Italy. If you study art history you will learn at least something about European countries. Even if so much we buy is made in China, it is mostly designed in Europe or the US.

There is simply little access to Chinese information or culture in the US.

美国的学校也不教中国文化。我在大学里学的是美术，但几乎什么也没学到。意大利就不是这样的。如果你学习艺术史，至少会对欧洲国家有所了解。虽然我们购买了很多中国制造的商品，但大部分都是欧洲或美国设计的。

人们在美国很难接触到有关中国的信息或文化。

Sohaib Khan

Related

We Americans consider China to be our biggest enemy. How many of you consider China to be an enemy of your country?

我们美国人认为中国是美国最大的敌人。你们中有多少人认为中国是自己国家的敌人？

Why do you think China is your enemy?

What Gov feeds you, Americas just digest it without processing. China has focused on its economy from last few decades while on other hand USA have been invading countries and killing civilians and losing money.

China is a friendly country have neutral foriegn policies.

为什么你们视中国是敌人？

美国政府给你们洗脑的东西，美国人不经思考就轻信了。在过去的几十年里，中国一直专心发展自己的经济，美国却不停侵略其他国家，杀害平民，为巨额军火支出买单。

中国是一个奉行中立外交政策的友好国家。

David J Wong

Related

Why do the majority of Americans view China as our #1 enemy?

There’s several reasons:

为什么大多数美国人认为中国是我们的头号敌人？

原因如下：

In recent years, Americans have been told this over and over in various forms by their politicians and the mainstream media.

China has a public relations problem. Whether it’s because they don’t care or something else, their efforts at PR and perception management are terrible. Plus, any positive contributions that China might make simply don’t get covered in the US (or are minimized).

近年来，美国人被他们的政客和主流媒体通过各种形式一遍又一遍地洗脑了。

中国在公关方面表现不佳。无论是因为他们不在乎或是其他原因，他们在公关和认知管理方面的努力都不尽如人意。而且美国不会公开报道中国做过的一切积极贡献 (或者会被轻描淡写一笔带过)。

It’s easy to create an “us vs them” narrative for China. Language is different. Culture is different. The way people communicate is different. Government is different. Very few Americans have ever visited China. The country is a black box to most Americans — including many of the so-called China experts in the US.

编造一个“中美对立”的说辞很简单。两国的语言不同，文化不同，人们的交流方式也不同。两国的政府更是迥异。很少有美国人去过中国。对大多数美国人来说，中国就是一个黑匣子——包括美国很多所谓的中国专家也是如此。

China’s seemingly inexorable economic rise over the past 30 years vs America’s comparatively slower economic growth creates cognitive dissonance, going against accepted conventional wisdom that “freedom” (ie de ocracy) and capitalism inevitably results in greater prosperity than states. America is supposed to be the land of freedom and opportunity

过去30年中国经济势不可挡的崛起，和美国较慢的经济增长形成了认知上的不协调，这和传统的公众看法相悖，即“自由”和资 本主义必然会更成功。美国被视为机遇的国度

The US has legitimate concerns over IP theft and protection of intellectual property rights. I remember the story of an acquaintance in Canada who had an idea for a new children’s toy. He had done his research. There was nothing like it on the market. So he started negotiations with a factory in China to start manufacturing. Imagine his surprise when exact replicas of his prototype started appearing in the market — before he was able to get his own product in production.

美国对知识产权盗窃和知识产权保护问题的关切是合情合理的。我记得我一个加拿大朋友的故事，他想要开发一款新的儿童玩具。他完成了市场研究，世面上没有这样的产品。于是，他开始跟中国的一家工厂洽谈加工业务。想象一下，当他在世面上发现原型复制品时，会有多震惊——比他生产出自己的产品还要早。

Add this together, and it’s easy to create a narrative where China is the enemy.

以上几点都很容易让人觉得：中国是个劲敌。

David Levy

Related

Why don’t Western people like China?

I’ve been here for over 30 years. When people ask me if I “like China” I usually say “It’s home— I like it on good days. Not so much on bad days. But it’s home, anyway.”

But yes, some westerners dislike China, and there can be a number of reasons for it:

为什么西方人不喜欢中国？

我在中国工作30多年了。当人们问我“喜不喜欢中国”时，我通常会说：“这里就是我的家—心情好的时候我超喜欢。心情不好的时候没那么喜欢。但不管怎样，我的家就在这儿。”

但是没错，确实有一些西方人不喜欢中国，这可能有很多方面的原因：

They are unsuccessful either socially or professionally, and they blame their environment for not “letting” them succeed.

They experience conflicts due to misunderstanding the language and/or culture.

They are plagued with language problems, so little chores become stressful.

他们在社交或工作上都默默无闻，所以他们怪环境没能“让”他们成功。

他们因为语言或文化的误会经历过矛盾冲突。

They can’t read Chinese characters, which are everywhere. This can be stressful.

They cannot navigate Chinese social circles very well. Because of language and cultural differences, they have difficulty making friends, or they chose friends whose motives may not be fully understood. This can lead to some bad experiences.

他们读不懂随处可见的汉字。这可能会给他们带来一定压力。

他们没法在中国社交圈里如鱼得水。因为语言和文化的巨大差异，他们很难结交朋友，他们也没法完全搞清身边朋友的目的动机。这可能都会带来一些糟糕的经历。

Living in China is a bit different than back home. Some guys just don’t like it.

China is less “westernized” than other East Asian countries they may have visited or lived in before.

在中国生活和在美国生活存在一些不同之处。有些人就是单纯地不喜欢在中国生活。

和他们曾经到访过或居住过的其他东亚国家相比，中国相对没有那么“西化”。

So basically, there are stressors on foreign exsts which local Chinese may find difficult to understand. In addition, there are some more objective reasons, such as air pollution and food safety, which can be troublesome.

These feelings are sometimes amplified by what I call the “China sucks” feedback loop.

所以基本上来说，外国人背负着一些中国人难以理解的压力。此外，他们还面对着一些更客观的原因，如空气污染和食品安全，这些可能都是大麻烦。

这种感觉有时会被我所谓的“中国真糟糕”的反馈闭环无限放大。

In order to relieve the stresses outlined above, some westerners like to sit around in expat bars complaining about China and the Chinese. Their WeChat groups feeds are full of media that validate the “China sucks” narrative; videos, photos, stories, and memes featuring Chinese people driving badly, being rude tourists, assaulting or cheating foreigners, littering, spitting, etc. Also there are stories of Chinese cops or other officials harassing expats.

为了缓解上述压力，一些西方人喜欢在外国人酒吧里一边喝酒一边吐槽中国和中国人。他们的微信群里充斥着证明“中国真糟透”说法的视频、照片、故事和表情包，内容嘛无非是中国人危险驾驶、不文明旅游、殴打或欺骗外国人、乱扔垃圾、随地吐痰等等。也有见过中国警察或其他官 员骚扰外国人的事。

Anyway, if you find a group of successful and mature westerners in China, they are unlikely to dislike the place. Westerners who really dislike the place are very often people who are having issues in some aspect of their lives, and whose anti-China views are constantly being validated and re-validated.

总而言之，如果你在中国看到一群成功又成熟的西方人，他们不太可能会不喜欢这个地方的。不喜欢中国的西方人往往是在个人生活的某些方面存在问题的人，他们的反华观点不断得到验证和强化。

Now, if you are talking about westerners in their home countries who somehow dislike China, that’s a different story. This is likely due to the constant stream of disinformation about China and its activities. You have to understand that China’s economic and military ascension is a scary thing. For the past 100 (?) years the western counties have ruled the world economy— that looks like it’s come to an end. It’s hard to adjust.

如果你说的是那些生活在自己国家、不喜欢中国的西方人，那就是另一回事了。这可能是因为媒体不断报道有关中国和中国动向的假新闻。你必须要明白一点，中国在经济和军事上的崛起势如破竹，令人害怕。在过去的100年里，西方国家一直称霸世界经济——这种好日子似乎马上到头了。西方国家很难调整心态。

Take just one example: the South China Sea “dispute”. If you look at it from a Chinese perspective, it’s perfectly natural that China should carve out it’s own portion of the SCS. Everyone else has been doing it for decades and no one complained. In addition, look at how many US military installations are arrayed along China’s coast, between Taiwan and Vladivostok. And with the US and Vietnam getting more friendly with one another, it makes sense that China should reserve it’s own space.

就以南海“争端”为例吧。如果你从中国人的角度来看问题，中国在南海划定属于自己的部分领海，是非常正常自然的做法。过去几十年各国都是这么干的，从来没人抱怨过。另外，大家看看从台湾省到海参崴之间的中国沿海究竟部署了多少美国军事设施吧。随着美国和越南之间的关系越来越亲密，中国当然要给自己预留出安全空间。

OK. That’s the a reasonable China perspective. But if you’re in the US, you may not even know, or may not notice, that the US has stationed itself across China’s doorstep and outside it’s backyard fence. You almost certainly don’t know that SE Asian countries have been claiming parts of the SCS for years. So it seems like a clear case of Chinese aggression.

So the media tells you that China is threatening your economic and military dominance, and is a growing threat to world peace. If you believe that, it makes sense to dislike China.

从中国的角度看完全合理对吧。但如果你人在美国，可能不会知道，甚至不会注意到，美国已经驻军到中国的家门口和后院了。你肯定不知道东南亚各国多年来一直对南海部分海域宣告主权吧。这似乎正是中国好斗的明显证据。

所以媒体就会跟你们讲，中国正在严重威胁你们的经济和军事主导地位，也是对世界和平日益增长的威胁。如果你们听信了这一点，那么自然就讨厌中国了。

Eric Lee

Maybe you are right, nobody give a fxxk to paper dragon. But you have to ask your goverment and politician why they are so obsessed about a paper dragon. Have you ever seen a single day your media/government/politician didn't mention China at all?

Looking at the impact of trade war and tech. war now, I believe China would be delighted if American continue see them as paper dragon.

也许你是对的，没人在乎这只纸老 虎。但你必须先问问你的美国政府和政客，为什么他们会抓着不放。你见过哪天媒体、政客是真的闭口不提中国的吗？

看看现在贸易战和科技战的影响吧，我相信如果美国人继续把中国当成纸老虎，中国会很高兴的。

Zhuzi

If you can understand what 风水轮流转 means, then you will understand why you have been wrong.

如果你能搞明白风水轮流转的意思，那么你就会明白你为什么错了。

Scott Bird

I think most who claim to hate China, or have a negative view of Chinese, are people who have no experience with China and have never visited.

I’ve been to China many times and always enjoyed my time there. I’ve made a lot of good friends that i still keep in touch with regularly. I hope to visit again someday.

Those who hate China are either ignorant, racist, or both.

我认为，大多数宣称讨厌中国或对中国人有负面看法的人，都是没有和中国打过交道或者从未去过中国的人。

我去过中国很多次了，我一直很享受在中国度过的时光。我交了很多好朋友，至今还经常联系。我希望还能再去一次。

那些讨厌中国的人要么很无知，要么是种族主义者，或者两者兼而有之。

Michael Hammond

I think people fear things that are different. I have been to China only once (so im no expert) but I think you have a great and beautiful country filled with mostly really good people. It is not a perfect place because nothing is perfect but I really liked my time there. You should think about traveling a little bit so you can see how the rest of the world is. It is an eye opening experience.

我觉得人们是担心陌生的事物。我去过中国一次(所以我算不上专家)，但我认为你们拥有一个伟大而美丽的国度，大多数人都非常友好。中国并不完美，因为世上不存在完美的事物，但我真的很喜欢我在中国度过的时光。你们应该安排一趟中国之旅，这样你就可以看看世界其他地方到底是什么样子的。这会是令你大开眼界的经历。