Sam Nettnin

[Zhai Xiang @ZhaiXiang5]

China-US relations did not begin with rivalry.

They actually began with Confucius. and with a ship.

Many people assume the story starts with missionaries, the Boxers, WWII, Ping-Pong Diplomacy in 1971, or diplomatic normalization in 1979.

But two remarks President Trump made at last week’s state banquet in the Great Hall of the People remind us that, beyond those familiar chapters of history, China and the United States also share an earlier, more hidden intellectual connection, and a chapter of trade once marked by mutual curiosity and admiration.

The first line of Trump was about Confucius.
"From the beginning, our citizens have shared a deep sense of mutual respect. Founding Father Benjamin Franklin published The Sayings of Confucius in his colonial newspaper and today a sculpture recognizing that ancient Chinese sage is carved into the face of the United States Supreme Court very proudly."

The second line of Trump was about the Empress of China, a ship that initiated contact of China and the US in 1784.
"The relationship between the American and Chinese people goes all the way back to America's founding. The first American consul to China, Samuel Shaw, arrived on the first American trading ship to reach these shores in 1784."

Together, the very original foundation of China-US relations was not merely the competition, friction, and misunderstanding familiar to people today. Back in the 18th century, the founding fathers looked to China as a source of trade, opportunity, and renewal.

Franklin, then 31 years old, published Confucian quotations in the Pennsylvania Gazette (top right) in 1737 (Emperor Qianlong was 26 years old). At that time, the United States had not yet been founded, but Confucian ideas about self-cultivation, virtue, and good governance had already been introduced to readers in the North American colonies. President Trump reveals a long-forgotten intellectual connection between China and the United States.

In the same 18th century, China was living through the Qianlong era, while the United States was entering the age of Washington. Emperor Qianlong, who ruled from 1735 to 1795, was the longest-serving monarch in Chinese history in terms of actual time in power; Washington, meanwhile, was the founding president of the American republic. One represented the height of the Qing empire, the other the birth of the American republic. Though separated by thousands of miles, they lived through the same age of dramatic transformation in the global order, and both died in 1799.

Qianlong held Confucius in the highest regard, making eight pilgrimages during his lifetime to the sage's hometown of Qufu in Shandong Province. He even donated a number of 2,000-year-old bronze artifacts from his collection to Confucius's descendants to enhance the grandeur of their ancestral worship. Over the two millennia following Confucius's death, twelve Chinese emperors made nineteen trips to Qufu to pay their respects, though all except Qianlong visited just once.

Starting with Qianlong's grandfather, Emperor Kangxi, each Qing dynasty (1644-1911) emperor also gift a plaque inscribed with their own handwriting to the Confucius Temple, affirming their endorsement of Confucian ideals. In their veneration of Confucian thought, Qianlong and all the Qing emperors exemplified the pinnacle of imperial respect for Confucius in China.

The American founding fathers who lived in the same era of Qianlong, on the other side of the world, unwittingly shared his commitment. Thomas Jefferson, before becoming the third president of the United States, studied Confucian teachings, which he later incorporated into his governance philosophy; Franklin's autobiography contains numerous references to the Analects by Confucius, in addition to his publication of Confucian sayings in the Penn newspaper. A statue of Confucius was included on the eastern pediment of the US Supreme Court when it was completed in the 1930s.

However, the stories of the American founding fathers' appreciation for Confucian teachings, emphasizing self-discipline and empathy for the people, have been largely forgotten. Similarly, many Chinese people do not know about the impact Confucius had on the founding of the United States either.

Emperor Qianlong, died in 1799, the same year as George Washington. John Adams, who was the president of the United States that year, wrote in 1776, America's year of independence:
"All sober enquiries after truth, ancient and modern, Pagan and Christian, have declared that the happiness of man, as well as his dignity consists in virtue. Confucius, Zoroaster, Socrates, Mahomet, not to mention authorities really sacred, have agreed in this."

The 1784 voyage to China marked the beginning of China-US relations. About 250 years ago, after American independence, Britain deliberately imposed various trade pressures on the United States. To overcome its economic difficulties, Americans began looking for a breakthrough not across the Atlantic, but across the Pacific.

At the time, when discussing China under Qianlong's rule, a Philadelphia magazine expressed excitement that America might one day become as populated and prosperous as China. A fur pelt that cost six sterling in America could reportedly sell for 100 dollars in China, and Americans had a deep appetite for Chinese tea and porcelain.

Eventually, the superintendent of finance decided to promote direct voyages to China for trade. The Empress of China therefore departed on February 22, 1784, Washington's birthday, carrying cotton, lead, pepper, ginseng, leather, among others (bottom left). After 188 days at sea, it arrived in China in the summer and fired a 13-gun salute.

At first, the people of Guangzhou (Canton) mistook the Americans for British merchants. But after learning more about them, they praised the Americans as law-abiding and humble. Records left by Americans at the time also described Chinese merchants as sincere and trustworthy. This stood in sharp contrast to the image of greedy and deceitful Chinese often found in British writings of the same period.

According to the records of the Empress of China, when a Chinese official boarded the ship for inspection, it fired a nine-gun salute. That afternoon, the official sent gifts of two oxen, eight bags of flour, and seven jars of wine in return. It was a small diplomatic gesture, but it captured the tone of that first encounter: cautious, ceremonial, and mutual goodwill.

On May 15, 1785, almost exactly 241 years before President Trump's May 14 speech, the Empress of China returned to the United States, causing quite a sensation. Its cargo was quickly snapped up. Even Washington asked someone to purchase some of the goods brought home by the ship.

The voyage further fueled America's fascination with China. To this day, several towns in the United States still bear the name Canton, after Guangzhou.

China did not forget this pleasant bond. In 1986, on the 210th anniversary of American independence, the Chinese government issued a commemorative silver coin engraved with the image of the ship (bottom right).

More than two centuries later, China and the United States certainly have differences, and there will also be competition. But China and the United States are not necessarily destined to become rivals. On the fundamental questions of what makes a good person, what makes a good government, and what brings happiness to the people, the two sides once looked in the same direction.

That past should not be forgotten.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

This story is immensely touching and is going massively viral in China. It's also a pretty good soft signal that China is taking warming ties with the U.S. sincerely.

This lady 👇 is called Yin Yuzhen (殷玉珍) and she lives in a place called Jǐngbèitáng (井背塘) in Inner Mongolia - deep in the heart of the Mu Us (毛乌素) Desert, a place whose name literally translates from Mongolian as "bad (lacking) water".

In 1985, aged 19, she and her husband were really desperate by the encroaching desert: sandstorms would seal their door shut overnight and literally threaten to bury them alive. She was crying every day and considered ending her life.

However, her defiant spirit prevailed and she decided to fight the desert, saying she'd "rather die planting trees than let the sand bully me to death" (宁可种树累死，也不让沙子欺负死)

In 1986, they traded the family's most valuable possession - a sheep - for 600 tree seedlings. Fewer than 10 survived, but they saw hope. Her husband Bái Wànxiáng (白万祥) took manual labor jobs and asked for tree seedlings instead of wages.

In 1999, Yin Yuzhen's story made it into national news on CCTV. An American named Ronald Sakolsky - originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - who was teaching English as a foreign instructor at Luoyang Foreign Language School (洛阳外国语学校) in Henan province, was deeply moved. He immediately started sending emails to multiple American organizations to raise $5,000 for her.

The $5,000 was sent through a Beijing-based foundation. In the video 👇, Yin Yuzhen recalls receiving it: "I had never seen that much money in my life - it scared me half to death." She spent every cent on higher-quality seedlings than she'd ever been able to afford.

Shortly after, Sakolsky traveled to the Mu Us desert in person. He found her out in the sand, planting. Seeing green where he'd expected only desert, he kept saying "impossible, impossible."

With Sakolsky's $5,000 alone, Yin Yuzhen planted 50,000 seedlings which have now become a forest. Over her entire life, since the 1980s, her life's work stands at over two million trees planted, transforming almost 50 km² (roughly 80% of Manhattan) of desert into green land.

Yin Yuzhen was awarded the 全国劳模 (National Model Worker), one of China's highest civilian honors.

Seeing her video titled 寻找���考斯 ("Searching for Sakolsky") and the incredible impact it was having on Chinese social media, journalists from Inner Mongolia's Benteng Media (奔腾融媒) tracked Sakolsky down by going to the Luoyang No. 2 Foreign Language Academy and finding the Headmaster Bai Fan, who was Sakolsky's former colleague.

Bai Fan connected with Sakolsky by phone on the spot, shot on video by the journalists (my 2nd video 👇), inviting him back to China to see what his $5,000 became.

This was 2 days ago on May 17th so you can bet that a Sakolsky visit to China will be arranged soon and that this will be one of the biggest pieces of US-China public diplomacy this year.

Now this story coming out and being amplified right after Trump's visit is of course no coincidence, we shouldn't be naive: what better way to translate the warmth from the visit than letting a desert grandmother in a red headscarf tell the internet she's looking for her American friend?

That doesn't make the story any less real or any less touching. In fact this story is the perfect reminder that countries don't have friends, but people do. And when countries remember this, deserts turn green.

[Sam Nettnin @sammustafa999]

要想富先修路

[Financial Times @FT]

UK builds just 65 miles of motorway in 10 years https://t.co/jes0Kkw64v

[Kirill Dmitriev @kadmitriev]

🚀 2025 is the 50th anniversary of the first international spaceflight: the Apollo-Soyuz mission 🇷🇺🇺🇸🤝.

Shall 2029 be the year of a joint US-Russia mission to Mars, @elonmusk?

Our minds & technology should serve the glory of humanity, not its destruction. #SpaceForPeace

[Russia 🇷🇺 @Russia]

🗓 #OTD in 1863, outstanding Russian & Soviet scientist, Vladimir #Vernadsky was born.

💡 Vernadsky shaped the basis of geochemistry, radiogeology & coined the #noosphere concept — idea that human consciousness shapes our planet & becomes the main factor in its development.

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

We South Africans know what apartheid looks like.

We lived through it. We suffered and died under it.

We will not remain silent and watch as apartheid is perpetrated against others.

https://t.co/1h5TeMVUwq

[BYD @BYDCompany]

On August 27, senior executives from @Uber visited BYD headquarters to discuss the long-term cooperation to expand access to New Energy Vehicles (NEVs) globally.

Over the next five years, the collaboration will deploy 100,000 BYD vehicles for Uber's fleets, rental partners, and drivers.

[Shen Shiwei 沈诗伟 @shen_shiwei]

Why it's so important to peace progress in the region?
➡️14 Palestinian factions, including #Fatah and #Hamas jointly pledged to end their divisions and strengthen🇵🇸Palestinian unity.
➡️It's the first time since the outbreak of the latest 🇵🇸#Palestinian-🇮🇱 conflict that the Palestinian factions have reached a reconciliation agreement.
➡️🇨🇳China's role as a great power and an influential mediator for international conflicts.
➡️It marks another key achievement in🇨🇳China's Middle East diplomacy following China's mediation of the 🇸🇦Saudi-🇮🇷Iranian reconciliation.

[Orbán Viktor @PM_ViktorOrban]

Peace mission 3.0
#Beijing

[Orbán Viktor @PM_ViktorOrban]

#China is a key power in creating the conditions for #peace in the #RussiaUkraineWar. This is why I came to meet with President Xi in Beijing, just two months after his official visit to Budapest. #HU24EU #peacemission

[Fox Green @FoxGGreen]

“These people frighten me”

God bless Mike Gravel for calling out Biden, Obama and Hillary as ghoulish warmongers.

[Sam Nettnin @sammustafa999]

A deep chasm turned into a thoroughfare. 天堑变通途。

[Chen Li 陈立 @CGChenLiNY]

#China has always spent its money on construction rather than war and destruction.

[Sam Nettnin @sammustafa999]

@alexspcm Is this from any particular book or article?

[Daniel Burke @danielcburke]

This is how we're going to build the Bering Strait Tunnel along the World Land-Bridge.

[Sam Nettnin @sammustafa999]

@jacksonhinkle

[☀️👀 @zei_squirrel]

in the full report, it becomes clear yet again that Anat Schwartz, Adam Sella and Jeffrey Gettleman deliberately set out to fabricate this atrocity propaganda hoax, with no regard at all to basic journalistic integrity and ethics. And the NYT stands by it

https://t.co/bVYzDaBNCu

[☀️👀 @zei_squirrel]

BREAKING: The Intercept went back to check one of the main sources used by the New York Times' Anat Schwartz, Adam Sella and Jeffrey Gettleman in their "mass rape" hoax, and have shown it to have been a fraud. Again, the biggest hoax in NYT history since Judith Miller

[Sam Nettnin @sammustafa999]

@shaunrein @chairmang He could be going to work with his friend at Foundation for Defense of Democracies China Program.

[Daniel Burke @danielcburke]

Campaigning for @JosBtrigga at Bronx Community College.

Great response.

The crisis has only one solution: bring the USA into cooperation with the BRICS+ nations.

Stop the genocide. Build the World Land-Bridge. Throw out @AIPAC’s tool Ritchie Torres.

[B'Tselem ב��לם بتسيلم @btselem]

Israel used Gaza war to prevent almost all of West Bank olive harvest in 2023
https://t.co/sZ7hLCj1qi