Time： 5 Things America Can Learn from China-3.docxVIP

Time: 5 Things America Can Learn from ChinaOn the evening of Nov. 15, President Barack Obama, the youthful leader of one of the worlds youngest countries, begins his first visit to China, among the worlds most ancient societies. Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, have much to discuss.But the visit comes at an awkward moment for the U.S. China, despite its 5,000-year burden of history, has emerged as a dynamo of optimism, experimentation and growth. It has defied the global economic slump, and the sense that its the worlds ascendant power has never been stronger. The U.S., by contrast, seems suddenly older and frailer. Americas national mood is still in a funk, its economy foundering, its red-vs.-blue politics as rancorous as ever. The U.S. may be one of the worlds oldest capitalist countries and China one of the youngest, but you couldnt blame Obama if he leaned over to Hu at some point and asked, What are you guys doing right?Could the worlds lone but weary superpower actually learn something from China? Its a politically incorrect question, of course. China is an authoritarian nation; its ruling Communist Party deals ruthlessly with any challenge to its hegemony. It remains, relatively speaking, a poor, developing country with huge problems to confront, massive corruption and environmental degradation being Nos. 1 and 1a. Still, this is a moment of humility for the U.S., and China is doing some important things right.1. Be AmbitiousOne day this summer, Sean Maloney, an executive vice president at Intel, was bouncing from one appointment to another in northeastern China, speeding along in a van traversing newly built highways. He gazed out at one of the worlds biggest construction projects: a network of high-speed train lines — covering 10,000 miles (16,000 km) nationwide — that China is building. As far as the eye could see, there sat vast concrete support struts, one after another, exactly 246 ft. (75 m) apart. Each was full of steel cables and weighed