My generation of Chinese looked up to the United States. When I was a university student in north-western China in the late 1990s, my friends and I tuned in to shortwave broadcasts of Voice of America, polishing our English while soaking up American and world news. We flocked to packed lecture halls whenever a visiting American professor was on campus. It was a thrilling time. China was emerging from isolationism and poverty, and as we looked to the future, we studied democracy, market economics, equality and other ideals that made America great.

We could not realistically adopt them all because of China's conditions, but our lives were transformed as we recalibrated our economy on a US blueprint.