 Just kind of was just going to do that. Thank you, Kayle. So welcome everyone to China is Not Our Enemy, another episode with our amazing guest. First, I want to just talk a little bit about the campaign. As I was setting it up, as I hear we watch, we watched with the war in Iraq, we watched with Vietnam, we watched with Korea, that the first casualty in war is the truth. And those lies are what drive us to war. And so we saw smoke. I say smoke, you know, when we start watching lies driven towards China, lies that make people hate. What a horrible thing to tell a lie to make people hate. When we really, as people on this planet need to love and care for each other, we need to be in cooperation, especially when we have a planet that's suffering so much. It's like love is what we need right now. So we launched the campaign, China is not our enemy because we wanted to get in the way of the propaganda, as I call it, the smoke before it turned into a fire, before it turned into a war, because the war on terror, the lies that drove us to war in Iraq cost US taxpayers $20 trillion of taxpayer money to murder 6 million innocent people in the Middle East. And I say innocent because there wasn't anyone in the Middle East that did anything. We invaded an innocent country and killed innocent people that has spread across the Middle East, and that's 6 million people dead. Now, as we watch these horrors in Palestine, I want you to understand it's like 20,000 probably dead already, horrible, horrible that we have watched this as a crime against humanity, but just think about 6 million dead from the US war on terror. That was 25,000 people on average per month. So what we are watching is like we haven't stopped the violence of the empire. We haven't stopped creating more weapons. If we watch right now, what we must do is all stand together and all say no, not in my name, not with my money, this violence is horrendous and it must stop. So we're here together to create that piece to across the ocean, across the Pacific Ocean with our dear guest today, Ding Ding. She has been a journalist for more than 10 years, traveling across China and reporting on poverty alleviation, ethnic diversity in Xinjiang and Tibet. She's also traveled around the world to explore what the Belt and Road Initiative looks like outside of China. Well, she recently came to the United States to cover the Xi Biden summit in San Francisco during which she was able to interview a lot of other people here. And I got to see her before she flew back to China. I was flying in from China, she was flying back to China. And I just thought what she had seen and heard I wanted to share with all of you. At CGTN, she hosts Talk It Out With Li Jing Jing and JJ On The Road. You can catch these on YouTube and her Twitter at Jing Jing underscore Lee, don't miss them. Because the one thing that I just love about this adorable woman is that she has a commitment just like those of Code Pink. She wants to build bridges between the peoples for peace. So she travels and she brings to her audience what she learns, not only what she learns but the voices of those in the region she's visiting. She reaches out to experts to learn more and raises their voices and shares them with her audience. I see her work, the Bunking the Lies and it makes me cry with joy, more sisters in peace and love. Jing Jing says when we know each other the narratives won't work anymore which is what we believe it could pink which is why we travel around the world and why we bring people with us too. So Jing Jing, thank you so much for joining us early in the morning in Beijing. I just want to say to everyone she's 16 hours ahead of us, our tomorrow morning. It was so lovely to see you on your recent visit to the US. Can you tell the audience like why you came to the US and maybe some of your first impressions when you arrived in San Francisco? Thank you, Jodi, for your kind introduction and hello everybody. Thanks for joining me. It's 9 a.m. in Beijing, greetings from Beijing and I already saw some friends that I met in San Francisco in this group already, KJ. I'm just very happy to see you again. So I went to the United States during the APEC meeting. I was among one of the reporters from CGTN and from Ho China that went to San Francisco to cover the APEC meeting and also the meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and also US President Joe Biden. So this time I went to the United States for work but before also before COVID I traveled to the US just for tourism before in San Francisco as Angeles and also New York. So I also wonder how many things changed during the past few years. So I was very excited to go to the United States this time to meet all of you, my friends and also just to see on the ground because we know when you hear some stories from media it not necessarily represents everybody. So I'm very keen to know how the American public feel about China. Does everybody look like China as an enemy? So I just want to do my own research as well. So my impressions about the United States first I have to say the United States is really beautiful. It's a great country and San Francisco is really beautiful and it'll be super comfortable to live there if you are rich. So I understand why there are a lot of people when they go to the United States they were like fascinated by everything. It is fascinating but what's shocking me is the stark contrast of the rich and poor because we were very fortunate to live in downtown San Francisco where everybody told us don't live there. There are a lot of danger. There are a lot of like overdose people that they may rob you. So we were told not to stay there. Well, we were lucky just to stay there and we were arrived a few days earlier ahead of APAC meeting before they clear out all the homeless people. So we saw another side of San Francisco and you know San Francisco many parts of the city is so pretty like scenic spots, like the beautiful houses, the area where rich people live and we also went to fancy restaurant it's so fantastic. But then how come the downtown area can be, I don't, I lack of the words to describe the region. For example, how can the sidewalks become public bathroom and how come there are so many homeless people and hopeless people on the streets and like drug overdose people. I mean, I'm not trying to pull down on the United States but that scene, even I come from China, a developing nation, I would never cease, I have never seen such scene in any city of China. Even if I go to the most remote or poorest region in China I wouldn't see that. And I've been to some of the world's least developing nations in the world. They were empowered people but they are not as hopeless as those homeless people I saw on the street in San Francisco. So I think the first impression to me is the stark contrast of the rich and the poor in the United States. And also, I think the second my experience I found is shocking that people because there are people know China like you guys like those who have long time relationship doing business, doing cultural coefficients with China but that probably 5% of the American population is a very small group of people that really are friendly and knows China very well or whether they're friendly to China or not they know what China is like, the history, the politics. So I want to ask people outside of that circle what the general public feel and know about China and to my surprise, most people know absolutely nothing about China even if they can bring up some of the lighthearted things like kung fu or noodles, I can live with that but most of the people, especially young people I approach, when I ask them what's the first thing pops up in your mind when thinking about China, there are no answers they seriously know nothing about China. Now I'm not saying everybody should know China I'm not that arrogant it's just because if I do this research in China if I ask college students or people on the streets what's the first thing pops up in your mind when talking about the United States how do you feel about the United States? I'm sure everybody can give a pretty good answer some will say freedom, diversity is a great country or some TV dramas like Friends or Starbucks because most people, they already know America through learning a language through learning the culture through reading news and if they read politics, they will know even better so I'm just shocked how and if I do this research in other developing nations like Africa or Latin America I'm sure people will give good answers to China and the United States very well because I've found people in China or other developing nations they have very good sense of knowledge about the world, about world politics about what's going on in the world or what the current affairs of different countries cultures so it's a little bit shocking to me that people absolutely know nothing and there are some students give some words to describe China but I also find it interesting whether Chinese students or American students when they talk about the United States they will give positive words to describe United States such as diversity, such as freedom and all the students when they describe China they will use words like COVID, competition well, and there are some words they're probably too shy to bring it to my face but they always tend to use very negative words to describe China so it's shocking how come there's a huge gap of knowledge about each other's countries so that's why I think it's so important that we all have a people-to-people connections more Chinese people travel to the United States study in the United States even though now it's still already a large number of Chinese people traveling, leaving a study in the United States but we also need more people from the United States to come to China, either for travel either for studying either just sightseeing come here, interact with the people because the people-to-people connection is the key to build a bridge, to build a basic understanding when we know each other person-to-person when this country, this race of people is not like stringent to you there will be no space for fear so that's why I think what Chinese President Xi Jinping said this time, I totally agree is that we need more people-to-people connections and the future of China's US relationship lies in the people, lies in the youth and I'm so happy that he's inviting 50,000 young people in America to study in China in the next five years so I think that will be a good start for better relationship between China and the US I totally agree with you I could think it's all about the people-to-people so if we were to come and China's a very big country what are your favorite places? We have many members of China is not our enemy and one of the really sad things is that inside the United States it's almost like you're not allowed to love China because oh my God, if you love China then you work for the CCP it's just like very McCarthyist you're not allowed to have your true feelings kind of like with Palestine you're not allowed to love Palestine and say no genocide so we know Chinese Americans I saw in your interviews where you're interviewing Chinese Americans and they're witnessing the president of their two countries come together their culture and their place where they live so pair with us some of your favorite places because you travel all over the country what should we not miss? What are your favorite things about China? Wow, there are so many places you know like just like the United States China is huge and wide and each province is different from another province so I cannot pick one favorite place because I feel there's different places are so... Okay, so how about we start from the Southwest because I think when you come to China you definitely should come to Beijing and Shanghai and Guangzhou and Hong Kong this first tier city is metropolitan but you won't see the other side of China because the rest of China is nothing like Beijing and Shanghai and Guangzhou and so I would recommend go to Northwest and East West and Southwest it's more England and also with the different ethnic groups living in there for example, how about we start with Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Tibet and also Yunnan Guangxi Yunnan Guangxi is in the Southwest of China so those regions also probably around 30 or 40 ethnic groups live there but you're ready to hear from them because you know like probably the CIA don't see those regions worth investing because they don't see any problems in this region to travel wedge between different ethnic groups in China but I would recommend go to Yunnan and Guangxi in Southwest China because the majority of ethnic groups live there Guangxi, Zhuangzu, Miaozu so when you go there you will realize the Chinese culture is not just this kind of culture the stereotype Chinese image its Chinese culture is very diverse Chinese culture is the combination of 56 different ethnic groups and there the population of ethnic minorities actually all numbered Han Chinese and they all have their own holidays their own languages their own ways of celebrating different cultures so you will see the other side of China but I think also worth you know I love I got deeper understanding about my own country my own culture is exactly because I travel to different parts of China when you go to these regions you realize how difficult poverty alleviation project was to any governments I can give you a few examples each province has a different geopolitical of geography sorry geography conditions and the reasons that led to those regions into poverty is also different in Guangxi Guangxi is just like Xinjiang its nature-blast province it has everything has wonderful trees had wonderful agricultural products but Guangxi is isolated from the rest of the province because it has steep mountains and most of the tribes couldn't leave their regions just because there were no roads it was almost impossible to build bridges and roads in such steep mountains but nowadays we'll go to Guangxi everybody can get out and the roads have built right into each household not just roads linking different villages different cities the roads are built into the mountains into the village and into each household so the farmers can bring their fruits their tender rings from their backyard to the street and let different companies to transport those products to the rest of China it made their life their business much easier so that's one thing that got helped them got out of poverty and I also recommend people go to Tibet Xinjiang in Mandarin because when I go there I realize oh my god how could anybody build anything there the Tibet is the lowest point is 4,000 meters above sea level and the rest of part you know it's probably 6,000 so it's very high so the low oxygen is a major problem for everything so in that condition it's almost impossible for anyone I only want to work for a long time but they build railways and highways you know in Tibet in the winter it's super freezing no one could work in the winter time so only four or five months that humans can work do high labor work it's during the summer like for example from April to July only those few months you can work for a long time but then you have to rest constantly because of the low oxygen and high altitude but even with the majority of the land of the earth in Tibet in the winter it's frozen earth means during nighttime it's frozen but in the nighttime it becomes mud so it poses great challenges for anyone who wants to do constructions to build any foundations for railways for highways so when you see that and you see the magnificent rows and highways I got to wonder how did those workers go to those railways so when you go to those regions you actually understand see what it is like and understand how difficult it was to for the government to come out with a very specific poverty alleviation policies that suits each province because China here we use the targeted poverty alleviation policies means each household each city each province has a different policy because their conditions are different so there's no one-size-fits-all projects that can help everyone so the government workers go to those places to investigate what's the reason that led to this region into poverty is that because of roads is that because of the climate is that because of maybe this household just unfortunate that many family members experience natural disasters and the high cost of treating them in hospital is the major reason that led this household went into poverty so they have very specific plans in each province and when you go to the province and you see that it helped me to realize and have a deeper admiration for all those CPC staffs it requires a huge dedication of serving the people to come out with such a plan so I really recommend everybody to go to this region to see for yourself and you realize how much it changes it has brought the country has has made it like to itself in the past four decades so um oh sorry it's okay I thought it went away so then what you talked about the culture and you know we find out in the U.S. that we're told in the U.S. that China wants to go to war on the United States I wonder if you could comment about that the last thing Chinese want is war I can assure you I can assure anyone who think China wants to go to war China is not interested in war at all what China Chinese people or Chinese government want is just develop we want to develop we don't want to do business we want to get rich we want to have a better life I say that because for one this country experienced so many wars on this land so even though the young generations don't know haven't experienced wars themselves but they know from their parents their grandparents from our history books what this country went through no one wants war and you know I think especially now when Chinese people see what's happening between Israel and Gaza first Chinese people know both sides of the story and they understand what they've been through the first thing comes to their mind if you go to social network to see Chinese netizens comments everybody is saying it just reminds them of the war when Japanese invaders came to China and it just reminds them of that how young children how Chinese people or Chinese women were being slaughtered but imperial Japanese soldiers so and also Syria went through war and when Syrian president came to China all the netizens saying we all sure the roses of Damascus will bloom again and we used to be under the rain so we want to give others umbrellas now and those comments those are not just one or two it's like massive amount of comments during Syrian president was here during this Israel-Palestine conflict Chinese people sympathize them because they experienced war and they're seeing other people going through the similar experiences they don't want to see that happen again now so the last thing Chinese want is instability because instability with instability you cannot develop there's no economic growth so I think this time when Chinese president and US president met my takeaway okay my takeaway is at least first both sides want to agree to stabilize their relations and and I think both sides realize for a long time the relationship between China and US probably will be negative they are not blindly naively believe it will be all nice and BFF forever but for a long time it will be negative but they have to learn how to coexist I think both sides through the past few years of tech wars and trade wars both sides realize decoupling and military conflicts is no one wanted both sides doesn't want it and also I think through the years both sides realize the limitations of the US sanctions on China China's economy and is quite resilient doesn't mean China doesn't suffer harms from the US sanctions and trade wars and chip wars but it cannot destroy China immediately but also China doesn't want to see this damage so both sides I think just agree okay we cannot change each other but we also cannot afford decoupling and have military conflict with each other so let's just just have a ceasefire just learn how to coexist and if you read Chinese government's comments the message is always just let us develop let us have the right and space to develop and we don't want war so I think that's the major takeaways I'm sure Chinese no one want from China want work with China China's message is just to develop is to achieve its next centenary goal is to build China into a modern socialist country where everyone can have a much better life that's a simple goal so um yeah that's a simple goal that I think you know every person in the world would like to be able to live their lives and so you know you've also traveled not just to the United States and around China but you've also traveled around the world to some of the Belt and Road countries and I wonder you know if you could share with us what you've learned is you've gone to see what does the Belt and Road Initiative look like in Africa and some of the other places you've been you tell us about your adventures well um where to start let me think so I really think that the Belt and Road Initiative is something that will change the world world order completely doesn't mean one country defeat another it's a project that will eventually give the majority of the world a right to develop it will finally allow the developing nations the global south to have the right to have infrastructures to develop that they have been denied for centuries during the western imperialism so when you go to Africa when if you only read Western mainstream media you'll think what China is doing in Africa is horrible but if you go to Africa and talk to African people they have a completely different view they will see the completely different things doesn't mean there's no problems among like the different Chinese companies or with local companies they have they will have conflicts but it's not what the western media described as the new colonialism and the first thing is as a Chinese when I go to those regions everybody treated me so well they treat me as family they welcomed me for example I went to Tanzania the local people when they will ask you where are you from are you Chinese when I told them I'm Chinese they were the first thing they said oh Chairman Mao we love Chairman Mao you are Chinese so they showed so much appreciation and welcomed my hospitality to me when they found out I'm Chinese well and why this show me such a great time not because I'm some like some fancy person or diva or whatever not because of me it's because of the all the Chinese companies factories and engineers there have built the reputation for Chinese people because they saw the difference between Chinese investors and the western investors when Chinese investor came they brought ports water system roads railways and improved their living standards so that's why they like Chinese people and also speaking of Tanzania Tanzania is the starting place of I would say daughter road initiative or China's foreign aid program because the the first railway that China built Africa is the railway called Tazara railway is a railway that linked Zambia and Tanzania and that was built in the 1970s initiated by Chinese chairman Mao and also Zambia's I forgot his full name Kawinda and Tanzania's Nere so these three president chairman talk it out and built this railway and you know during that time Tanzania and Zambia also went for help went asking for help from the United Kingdom from the United States from Soviet Union they asked all those great powers back then but no one came because they even refused to send researchers to do on the ground research because they found it's cost so much money and with little payback so they don't think it's worth investing and so those countries came to China for help and China provided all rounds of help like investigation, exploration design, construction and interest-free loans in the 1970s and it's kind of like what is happening now when you ask those developed nations why they accept China's investments and Western like United States they keep demonizing China's investment is so horrible don't trust China don't work with China but but why didn't you help them they went to you went to you to ask for help but you refused because you don't think it bring enough benefits for you you don't think it's worth investing so China was the only country that provided help I got the same answer in Pakistan I got the same answer in Greece I got the same answer in Tanzania every country I go I asked them how do you think China's assistance that China was the only country that came to help us when we were desperate Pakistan was the same when Pakistan was experiencing this huge debt crisis that's how the CPAC China Pakistan Economic Corridor was built China was the only country to help Greece was the same many European countries are upset that China is the main it controls the port Paris port because China's company bought it they are unhappy with it but when Greece was went through a debt crisis no country went to help so China's company Costco was the only country that invested in it so and then that's that but then you see also the difference because when you go to see those those Chinese or when one of the Chinese is like about a road projects some just think China controls all of that but when you go to those companies you see the employees you see how it worked them actually is the locals that controls this company for example in the I went to a copeland in Pakistan in the copeland how are they helping the local people to be able to run energy plants when the company first went to Pakistan they found out many staff didn't have enough trainings and knowledge of running a huge plant so at the initial stage is probably mainly Chinese engineers and to help that but during that time they also brought hundreds of Pakistani employees engineers to China to be trained and now several years later those who receive the trainings have become have received senior positions in this power plant they've been promoted as a leader in the company so gradually they are giving those key positions to locals once they were got enough training and this copeland itself created so many hundreds of thousands of jobs and when you have a company that creates jobs and generate electricity for the village all the nearby villages has less crimes we went to the nearby villages ask how the villagers feel about this plant near you is there any pollution to to your river to your farmland they all said no and you know what just because there's a plant and all of the men in the village working the plant and there's no crimes anymore so I think that's the fundamental difference between the bottom row initiative and western imperialism is through economic development you can forever have peace and stability and that's the thing many regions wanted in the in the middle east west asia in africa latin america caravans they went through so many wars expectations they never have the rights to develop but this this bottom road is the hope for them to forever change that and hence I want to mention since we talk about the bottom road initiative that's why we hear the lies about Xinjiang because why all of a sudden a few years ago people in the west who have never met any Uyghurs who have never heard about the word Uyghur suddenly talk about Xinjiang talk about Uyghur's rights there's a reason because Xinjiang is the gateway of the bottom road initiative if you look at the map Xinjiang located in the northwest of China it shares borders with eight countries these eight countries are mongolia russia kazakhstan kirkistan tajikistan afghanistan pakistan and india this region itself connects borders with eight countries and you take a look at these countries you know it's in central asia so it also accrued region that many railways connecting Eurasia went through many railways starts from Xi'an in central China goes through Xinjiang and then connect with entire central asia west asia and europe so it's the gateway for the bottom road initiative to expand westward if it worked the bottom road initiative worked in this region it will connect whole Eurasia it will bring peace and stability to Eurasia you know this region has been seen as a geopolitical transport for major powers in the past decades big powers came here for their geopolitical gains and brought forever chaos and wars and insubilities to this region but if this region is connected through economic development through the bottom road initiative it would destroy the major powers geopolitical game and it actually beneficial to the people living in this region so that's why all the lies about Xinjiang were created but you know the lies I'm happy to see the lies are falling apart it doesn't work anymore first is because they never cared about Muslim people's rights except Muslim people in China's rights they don't care about people in Palestine's rights they don't care about people in Gaza's rights I feel the whole world is seeing their hypocrisy and second despite all the lies that the western media western governments has been spreading no Arab nations no Muslim nations believing this narrative Islamic leaders from all around the world different leaders of Arab nations have came to Xinjiang to see for themselves and they all praised China's anti-terrorism method it's it's so funny when you see western countries are crying out loud for Muslim people in China but Muslim leaders are saying oh China's anti-terrorism method is so great how did you do it they want to learn that and they totally support what China is doing in Xinjiang and there's definitely no genocide to the people or to the culture and now Xinjiang has been turned into a pilot free trade zone means more international business corporations cultural technology corporations will take place in Xinjiang so this region will definitely be a hub for international corporations for Central Asia for West Asia for Europe and I think about a road if we all come together and work towards it probably this is give us a chance to develop and rise up peacefully oh my god it's like so you know just so beautiful the vision and how much you embody it yourself I mean the joy you have from you know what you're talking about what you're experiencing and what you see you know one of the things that always shocks me is when you talk about China they're like oh it's a dictatorship and everyone in China just must be a robot listening to the leadership and not knowing how to think and I say you know I think why don't you say that to a person in China directly like what would what would be like to say that to someone you take that like when someone says something like that I find it so insulting and racist you know you must you've experienced all this kind of silliness that people are really even unconscious about what they're saying and what it means to the listener if you do think to share what's that like to listen to some of that information that you get from people in the US I think when I was younger when I hear people say that to my face I was shocked and don't know how to fed back now they say to me I'll just laugh in their face it that they're just very racist I think I also had this experience recently in the United States when some of the American people telling me uh China benefited from the real from the world trade you became rich because you stole the IPs from us it was like that's very American centric thinking if we forever poor and we are always underdeveloped you will say see those lazy awful stupid people cannot develop themselves but if we succeed you will say oh because we made you succeed everything is about you oh why why can it be because we work hard and we design good policies that we finally develop ourselves and uh so and when you say we stole the technology IPs from you now China even have the technology the Americans don't have how can we still think that you don't even have do we steal the space stations do we steal the 5g do we steal all the like from you so that's condescending but also it's sad in a way because those people live in their own bubbles like frogs in a well you'll still think you are the greatest umpire in the world you don't need to look at the world you know that reminds me of the Qing dynasty of China that reminds me of the history during Qing dynasty the last dynasty of China at the ending stage when the united kingdom at the west went through industrial revolution got greater technologies really developed back then but the umpires then still think we are the greatest umpire in the world we we don't need to learn from them we're still great so when you're trapped in that well in living look what happened to China that dynasty it collapsed and China went through war for decades and I think China learned from that experience and China knows you cannot never isolated yourself from the rest of the world you have always need to learn from each from other people whatever they're doing great whatever works for you bring bring it to you learn from them make it a part of your culture um just develop always study and work hard and develop so um I feel maybe this sounds disrespectful to a lot of people in America but I do feel they need to look at the rest of the world look what's going on in the world don't just focus on the united states because I'm sure Chinese people are not doing that Chinese people are looking at the world and the rest of the world are also doing that when I go to the Africa when I go to West Asia go to Southeast Asia you will see people know much about the rest of the world they learn different languages I can share with you there's some observations about the young people I feel about like in China because in the past few months I've traveled to different top universities in China like Beijing Renmin University Peking University Tsinghua University Fudai University and those young students in China give me so much hope about the future of China for example many of them are multilingual not just speaking Mandarin and English many of them speak perfect Arabic perfect Spanish perfect French some of them only 18 19 but already doing different international communication exchange programs go to the UK go to different parts of the world to learn from different cultures some of the students I was told by my Iraqi friend who was giving lectures at universities in China he said those students not only do they speak perfect Arabic they also understand the world of politics and this student who speaks great Arabic also telling him I'm not just learning Arabic I'm also learning Swahili because I'm going to Africa I mean look at the world view of these young generations and another thing is it's very hilarious recently because a few months ago there's a viral video very viral on China's internet is a professor middle-aged professor go to a high school giving Chinese high school students a lecture but his speech was just it's just crazy he was telling the students you just need to work harder make more money and make more money and then go to America and then marry white people so and then upgrade your genes something like that horrible speech and then you know it was at a high school a middle school and the entire crowd was like what but the audiences are teenagers but one teenager stood out from the crowd walked to the stage grabbed the microphone from the professor telling all the audiences who are also teenagers Chinese teenagers like my fellow classmates don't listen to this crappy professor why are we learning where are we studying we are studying for the rejuvenation of a Chinese nation and he got the plot from entire audiences from teenagers imagine a 16 or 17 year the Chinese teenager woke up to the stage calling the professor out and telling his classmates we are studying for the rejuvenation of a Chinese nation that's the spirit on man's side of the young generations in China so I have so much hope for the young generations I mean they represent the future so I really like think the future of this country is very promising well we also have hope work for the young people because right now they're in the streets for Palestine it's definitely an age difference so I do look to the young people of the world to bring us to peace so by the way I also want to give credit to the American youth even though I said something maybe it sounds disrespectful but you know it's understandable they don't know much about China yet because there's no way for them to get information there's no media doing any stories about China there's limitations on China so I understand why they don't know so much about China or the rest of the world but I find what's amazing is those American youth are so open-minded so open-minded and open-minded to diverse cultures and they are very respectful to me and when I tell them I'm from China and they say welcome and I don't know much about your culture but I think your culture is really beautiful I heard your culture is very beautiful so they are very open-minded and I do met a group of students high school students they are super excited about going to China it's the Lincoln High School in Washington State I've got a way to city Lincoln High School those teenagers they are super excited and they want to come to China they want to study and travel to China they cannot wait they are super excited the excitement is like it's incredible and they're super friendly so you know why they're so passionate about Chinese culture and coming to China it's because many years ago Chinese President Xi Jinping and Madame Peng Liyuan visited that school so and they have people-to-people interactions those students in that school met Chinese people have good experience made friends with Chinese people so there's no prejudice there's no stereotypes they're excited about coming to China so maybe that's the thing we need to do just let people meet make friends right so that'll be a start of a better relationship so one of the things that always happens when I say I'm going to China they'll be like you know be safe is what they say and I've been in China with many women from around the world and what every single one of them has told me I mean not I mean every single one of them has said I have never felt so safe in my life no because it's like the water you swim in you don't understand the difference because it's just where you live but you know women from Africa from Latin America they've they've got a profound experience because also they didn't know the difference from where they lived but they were just like all of a sudden they realized I didn't realize how much energy I had to put into each day feeling safe and making sure I was doing the right thing and making myself safe so I'm wondering if you experienced anything in your coming to the United States that would help you understand how those people felt or if you're conscious of what a safe place it is to be in and I felt it in a different way I was there some of the early days right after October 7th and here I was watching hell on earth happen and yet I was in a place where it just felt like peace and harmony so how do you see it me and my friends always joke about when you live in China for too long it lowers your guard of of like means safety because we got used to the safety that we have for me as a woman living in a city like Beijing I can walk alone on the streets any time I want 12 p.m. 1 a.m. 2 a.m. I don't need to worry about a thing that's the safety you can get in most the cities in China seriously and and in many places for example if I go to a meeting go to a event I leave my bags my laptops my cell phone on the table on the tended and go to talk to other people and come back my stuff will still be there and don't worry about being stolen and my other friends said the same thing because recently they went to another country for a meeting and he got used to just leave his laptop and his backpack on the seat on the on the seat and unattended and the local people had to tell him you're not in China grab your stuff with you all the time so I mean so like like we and the nowadays you know because I haven't traveled abroad for like past two years and this year I went to different countries everywhere I go I was warned again and again by local people or by people from from China like be careful with your stuff don't go out at night don't do this don't walk alone don't do that don't do that a lot of warnings so like really in San Francisco it's oh well after seeing what like what's happening on the streets in the area where I live I don't dare to walk out of the door so um this this it's how when many western countries talk about human rights talk about freedom I find it hilarious you don't even have the freedom of safety you don't even have the human rights of just safety or just even just how about your you don't even have a clean city I mean isn't that human rights as well you don't have a safe and a clean city like where's the freedom where's the human rights of that yet in the developing nation in the like very backward China you can't have all the freedom so it's it's and also I think I talked to KJ about it as well I mean because this year we have many friends from different parts of the world like from New York from San Francisco from London from around the world coming to China to Beijing I asked them their impressions about Beijing how do they feel and the word they gave me are also just very simple words oh Beijing is so clean it shocked me I think clean is the basic is a very basic thing for a city to do but so many people came to Beijing said oh Beijing is so clean and how come there's no homelessness in Beijing in China it's like how come you still have homeless people you when you are the number one country in the world I mean there's so much culture shock but uh well I think if if but you know it's not just China many Asian countries are the same if you go to Japan if you go to South Korea if you go to Singapore you will also feel the same level of safety and also cleanness cities in Japan are also very clean cities in Singapore are very clean in general Asia I feel you will have the same level of safety and cleanness and I think that's something western civilized nation think about how come you cannot have the basic things when you look down upon Asia so uh I'm going to let you go even though I'd love to spend another hour with you thank you Jing Jing for sharing your heart and um you know if you want to continue the conversation with her she's got an amazing channel that you can watch she's going to take you around China she'll take you around the world you can follow her on YouTube at Jing Jing underscore Li or on Twitter and um thank you so much for being with us today thanks for sharing your heart and being so authentic and um you don't look like an oppressed person to me or talk like one even though we you know that's what we hear in the United States um so thank you for all you do thank you for building bridges for peace and love and connectivity that's what we need in the world today and you are brilliant at it with your open heart and your your brilliance at being able to see and share deepest gratitude thank you thank you so much Jody for having me all and thank you so much everybody for joining us today I would love to talk to all of you for if we have more time or if we have more chances feel free to reach out to me and I really think it's just we need to step out of our own comfort zone step out of our own bubbles and just to meet each other talk to each other talk to each other and visit each other's country and learn each other because when you actually just like I mentioned earlier when you actually meet the person that you didn't know before when you actually went to the country they didn't know before all the stereotypes all the stereotypes you had just just collapse and the during the COVID years when most people cannot come to China the media abuse that opportunity to spread all kinds of lies but all those lies are collapsing because people all come to China and see for themselves it doesn't work anywhere so just like I said in my video when you come here see for yourself have people to build about interactions all the narratives the media spreading won't be working so let's be friends let's make friends and come to China I will be here welcoming all of you and I want to go to the United States again and again to help more people build more people to people connections so thanks for talking it out with us Jingjing all right much love and peace peace thank you