I am an American living in China, and I believe—deeply and without apology—that telling the truth about China’s successes will make us stronger.
In fact, the real danger to America is not that some of us are willing to speak honestly about what China is doing well, but that so many voices at home insist on hiding, minimizing, or distorting that reality. A nation that refuses to see the world as it is cannot compete in it, cannot reform itself intelligently, and cannot secure a prosperous future for its people.
Those lying to us about China’s advancements in affordable healthcare, public transportation, 90% homeownership, public safety, and so forth are holding us back. They are preventing the USA from excelling.
Patriotism is not cheerleading. Patriotism is not repeating comfortable myths. Patriotism is the courage to confront facts, especially when those facts are inconvenient! Patriotism also does not mean hating other nations. China and the US are perfectly capable of meeting as peers and cooperation to build a shared future for all our peoples.
Every major American success story—from industrialization to victory in World War II to the space race—was built on brutally honest assessments of where we stood relative to others. We studied our peers, learned from them, and adapted. We did not weaken ourselves by pretending they were incompetent or morally inferior. We strengthened ourselves by learning from others.
Living in China has forced me to confront realities that many Americans are shielded from. I see functioning high-speed rail that connects entire regions. I see cities built around public transit rather than endless sprawl. I see long-term infrastructure planning, aggressive investment in energy, and a population that broadly understands where the country is trying to go over the next twenty or thirty years. None of this means China is perfect. It is not. But pretending these achievements do not exist, or dismissing them as illusion or propaganda, does not make the United States stronger. It makes us blind.
Those spreading lies about China are not making America safer, they are betraying what the USA stands for. We are not cowards. We should know if other nations are able to create the conditions for economic progress by newly minted means. We also can and should work with China to build that future.
What is truly unpatriotic is deceiving the American people about the scale, speed, and seriousness of China’s development. When Americans are told that China is “collapsing,” “incapable,” or “doomed any day now,” it encourages complacency. It tells us we don’t need to invest, reform, or rethink our assumptions. It reassures us that our systems are automatically superior and self-correcting. History is unforgiving to nations that believe that.
I speak honestly about China because I care about America’s future. If China is building energy capacity at a pace we are not matching, Americans deserve to know that. If China is training engineers, deploying infrastructure, and planning industrial policy more coherently than we are, Americans deserve to confront that reality.
The path to American renewal does not run through denial. It runs through clarity. The truth matters. Facts matter.
If we want the United States to thrive in the decades ahead, we must stop confusing propaganda with patriotism. Real patriotism demands courage—the courage to look at the world as it is, learn from it, and act accordingly. Anything less is not loyalty. It is negligence.