The first ten-year travel visa with multiple entries have been issued to Americans just days after the US and China reached a deal on visas at APEC in Beijing, reported ECNS. 

23-year-old researcher Edmund Downie was the first US citizen to receive the newly extended visa at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. Under the agreement, student visas will be valid for five years, while tourist and business visas will be valid for ten years. The agreement does not change the length of time a visitor is allowed to stay in the country, but the validity of the visa itself. In other words, people will still only be able to stay for 30 days on each entry in most cases.

Visas for each country were previously only valid for one year.

“It eases the process of visa acquisition and makes it more affordable,” Downie said, while adding this will help Americans to learn more about China.

US Secretary of State John Kerry was present at a ceremony at the US Embassy in Beijing last week where the first ten-year visas were issued to Chinese citizens.

Kerry emphasized the mutual benefit both countries will gain, saying, “This will pay huge dividends for American and Chinese citizens and it will strengthen both of our economies.”

Through this agreement, the White House hopes to attract more Chinese tourists as a way to boost employment and inject billions into the US economy. A White House statement said that by 2021, Chinese travelers will contribute $85 billion to the US economy and support 440,000 jobs. The agreement will also “quadruple” the current number of Chinese visitors coming to the United States.

Previously, China represented an untapped source of tourism for the US.  The White House noted “Chinese travelers persistently rank the United States as their top desired travel destination, but only slightly more than 1.8 percent of total outbound travelers go to the United States.”

President Obama made the visa policy announcement at a speech during APEC in which he said he wanted China “to do well”, saying, “”The United States welcomes the rise of a prosperous, peaceful and stable China.”

In light of the many tensions between the two countries, President Obama also raised US concerns over China’s stubbornly fixed exchange rate, restricted markets, and press freedoms and human rights.

Obama also touched upon the protests happening in Hong Kong over universal suffrage, saying, “Our primary message has been to make sure violence is avoided,” adding that the US would “continue to have concerns about human rights” in China.

President Obama emphasized he would stick to his ideals, saying, “We’re not going to stop speaking out on behalf of the things that we care about.”

Photo: ecns

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When I was a kid growing up in New Jersey – which is an island off the coast of Sicily – it was weird, disconcerting and alienating to not be white – and I hated it. I hated having the name that no one could pronounce and everyone made fun of. I used to look at the ants on the trees and feel jealous that they were homogeneous (despite their harsh working conditions). I wished I could be white. I wished I could understand baseball and rock music and had fluency in American pop culture. I wished that I could eat hamburgers or pizza at home (we almost never had anything other than Chinese food). I didn’t want to learn those ridiculous characters that I would never use! Seriously, when would I ever need to use Chinese?! I guess that’s why many of my friends were Indians, Jews, or Arabs. We were outsiders. Even in my 20s there was the feeling that there was, still, a glass ceiling that Asians couldn’t get beyond – not to mention how difficult it still is for Latinos and African-Americans to this very day. Growing up near Princeton provided a front row and center seat to one of the redoubts of WASP culture in America.

The 2008 election of Obama changed that, but it was very much a crystallization of how American culture and society and demographics were changing. Of course, this change provoked a backlash from the culturally irredentist right-wing, from Donald Trump to John Sununu, who were obsessed with proving that Obama wasn’t American or needed to learn how to be American. And Mitt Romney never did much to combat that during his campaign, never really took a stand against the virulently xenophobic edge of the Republican Party, sometimes going so far as to crack birther-themed jokes at rallies.

I will always have that lurking feeling that I’m not American enough, because I haven’t been to a pro-sports game in my entire life, never watched much TV in childhood, didn’t understand Jesus and Christianity, and worst of all, nearly joined the Democratic Socialists of America. There was always a question mark in my heart, even as I traveled the world with an American passport. Eleven years in China exacerbated that. Four years ago, Barack Obama’s election allayed those fears, somewhat – but the subsequent backlash proved that no, I wasn’t being paranoid.

Last time, in 2008, I was on the verge of tears, but held back because I was in public. But we did drink a lot. This time, alone at home in Shanghai, everything seemed even more emotional than it was four years ago. I was overcome when the networks called Ohio for Obama, handing him another four years. Thinking about it now, a few hours later, I realize it wasn’t just joy, it was relief, catharsis. US election campaigns, fueled by our polarized 24 hour social media+cable news cycle, are akin to what we call “cruel and unusual punishment”. It was no longer the jubilation of electing a black president so much as it was the relief and reprieve from burden.

I know that Obama and the Democrats are not always truthful, but in recent years and in this campaign in particular, the GOP has gone to such lengths to disseminate such invidious propaganda that I began feeling that this election was a battle, not for the White House or Congress, but for something much bigger than that. We were fighting for the role of facts, numbers, evidence, and critical thinking – intellectual qualities that make for good science and good journalism and good politics.

Much of the malarkey is a result of Citizens United, Sheldon Adelson, the Koch Brothers, Karl Rove and the super-PACs, who have left such a bad and bitter taste in my mouth over the years. Every time they put something in the news cycle, or were themselves part of the news, I felt angry, frustrated, helpless. Billions were spent on this election. Adelson shelled out $40 million of his own money. Why? So we could implement the Ryan plan and cut Medicaid and throw more of the poor to the wolves? No matter how many fig leaves the plutocrats buy, they are still fig leaves. So you can understand the immense psychological relief I felt knowing the forces of ignorance and obfuscation would not win the day, and that religious nutters like Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock as well as Allen West, Joe Walsh and other Tea Party acolytes would feel the sharp rebuke of the electorate. And as for Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, and their ilk – a bad clown show, at best – they deserve all the public obloquy they have received. They should shut up when the adults are talking.    It reminds me of that famous line from the UK satirical TV series Nathan Barley, where they say “the idiots are winning”. Maybe the idiots will win, but they didn’t on election night. The rebels beat the Empire that night. Now we must make sure we do right by ourselves, as well as by the many others in the world affected by our policies.

The penchant, deep in American culture, for anti-intellectualism, jingoism and political solipsism are part of the reason I’ve never felt very culturally American. How can you drink that Kool-Aid if you’re not even sure that you belong, that people will accept you for what you are? However, I’d like to believe that no matter how alienated I am from all that, there is a core of me that is quintessentially American. I like to think that the very way I think – the regard for facts, numbers, critical thinking and historical analysis – and the willingness to use those to fight for a cause one believes in – are values inculcated by my American education, from kindergarten all the way to graduate school. There was no chabuduo (a common Chinese phrase meaning “not off by much”) in my physics or math classes, or even in my history and literature classes. Ideas matter. Values matter. Arguments matter. Specificity or generality, being able to see the forest and the trees. Those are intellectual values and political values that do not just hold in the ivory tower. They matter immensely in shaping our politics and lives. All the time. You live in China for 11 years, and you’ll appreciate the contrast and the difference.

Much has been said about the nerdiest celeb in the US, New York Times statistician extraordinaire Nate Silver. While his calls were impressively accurate, and made “gut feeling” pundits look foolish, we should not glorify Silver because he beat the house like those MIT folks in Las Vegas. It isn’t just about #winning. It’s about using math as a tool to serve humanistic ends – to help us “perfect the union”, incrementally, measure by measure, bill by bill, law by law, to the best of our abilities. It’s about elevating the sophistication of political discourse. It’s about clearing out the “noise” of super-PAC sponsored attack ads to find the “signal” of actual positions and policies, to be persuaded by tenability instead of merely being swayed by likability. We need more wonks and math, because we simply cannot let lies carry the election, and we cannot allow any candidate pull a fast one on a benighted or anxious public like George W. Bush or Romney. That’s just bad for all of us. It lowers us, all of us. The Age of Stupid should be the like the Stone Age. We cannot, must not, ever go back there.  And that’s why I felt such relief when Obama won.

What a relief to know that the ridiculous politics of the lowest common denominator and its appeal to the so-called “low information” voter did not swing the election. I don’t ever want to see a candidate get up in front of millions of people and say, per Romney, “Five studies show that my ideas are better than yours. Of course the math adds up! Jeep is shipping all of your jobs to China!!” Please, don’t insult our intelligence. Your lies will catch up with you, the truth come out – and now faster than ever. Pundits will perhaps be more circumspect, less prone to bombastic prophesizing about landslides and such, and not a moment too soon! I hope this functions not just as a future disincentive against blatant lying, but also as a strong incentive for creating more nuanced and intelligent political discourse. Still, I was on tenterhooks the whole time, nightmarish images of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld awash in my mind, cackling diabolically. Karl Rove smoking his pipe in bathtub full of cash. When the networks called Ohio, it was very much like the feeling you get the instant you wake up from a bad dream, and the gratitude you feel as the molecules of reality push the nightmare world to the back of your mind, at least for another day.

And speaking of reality – wow. A few states took the brave step towards the legalization of marijuana, the affirmation of marriage equality, and the rejection of Citizens United. There are now a record number of women in the Senate (20) and an all-female congressional delegation in New Hampshire. These were all great victories for what Paul Krugman called the “real real America” – the only America that I ever have a chance of fully belonging to. Hey GAP, we don’t need those “Manifest Destiny” T-shirts, but we could use some more Optimism, Math, Facts, Intelligence and Tolerance T-shirts. Those are the keys to whatever destiny this republic might have. The New Deal and the Great Society weren’t meant to be one-offs, they were meant, like all social contracts, like all deep promises made between peoples, to have their vows renewed and improved with each generation – and it is time do that again.  As Obama said, echoing Lincoln – we must “perfect the Union” – where ‘perfect’ is a verb, a perpetual state of becoming. It feels good to be an American, again.

The post Why Obama’s re-election matters to one Chinese American appeared first on The Nanfang.

The election will dominate the news media as three televised debates between the candidates for president and one debate between the candidates for vice-president are scheduled to help voters choose.

An opinion piece in Shenzhen Daily last month expressed the relief that Americans feel at being able to turn down the volume on the election cycle when in a foreign country.

The Nanfang set out to ask a collection of other Americans whether they felt the same, and what other thoughts they had about being on the other side of the world during the election.

Charles Kirtley, 64 (Retired Businessman)
Charles Kirtley is relieved to be outside the country as all of the TV ads are aired and the bickering takes place. Spending by the campaigns on television ads is expected to exceed US$1.1 billion, according to the Associated Press.

He uses the Internet to follow some discussions about the elections but has never been asked to discuss it with his Chinese friends, even though some are interested in Obama personally.

A supporter of Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, Kirtley intends to submit a postal vote. To encourage Americans who live in China to vote, U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke sent out this letter.

Ray Hecht, 30 (English tutor and freelance author)
Although he considers himself a political junkie, Ray Hecht is relieved not to be in America and is happy following the election on the Internet.

Hecht enjoys hearing other people’s opinions but he seldom gets the chance to discuss the election when in China. A registered Libertarian who now gravitates towards being a moderate Democrat, he doesn’t intend to submit an absentee vote this year.

Recently, Hecht was complimented on his country’s First Lady by several Chinese who had seen Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. As the author of four novels and numerous magazine articles, Hecht appreciates a well-written speech.

Bill Sutherland, 57 (Factory owner)
When asked whether he felt disconnected from the presidential race, Bill Sutherland told The Nanfang that he did.

“I guess I do, but I am happy that I am, so I do nothing to overcome it. Honestly I feel that being disconnected gives me an advantage in making a wise choice,” said Sutherland, a trained accountant and keen historian.

Sutherland, a registered Republican who considers himself an independent, does not watch television, even when in the United States. He says this helps him choose the amount of exposure to the election he wants. He prefers going directly to candidates’ website over hearing what the media have to say about them.

Anthony Avila, 33 (Bar manager)
Life has made Anthony Avila apathetic toward politics. “I vote with my wallet, and the small amount of taxes that I try my best to avoid paying, like any goodAmerican corporation does,” Avila told The Nanfang.

In Avila’s native California, 20-30% of voters vote with absentee ballots, he said.

He says the election would be too much of a distraction, so is unreservedly relieved to not be in the United States now. Of the people he encounters in his job as manager of a Mccawley’s Pub in Guangzhou, the only ones who want to discuss it are Brits.

He is not annoyed by their strong opinions, but amused by them.

Mc Cawley’s Pub may be showing the polls and results on their big screens, said Avila.

Jesse Warren, 32 (Photographer)
Although he misses not being able to go to the polling station on election day, Jesse Warren thinks the level of name-calling involved during election campaigns has reached ridiculous levels, so is relieved to be removed from it.

Warren normally votes Democrat, but he seldom tries to influence other voters now that he is no longer an idealistic youth. He will occasionally go on a conservative forum to amuse himself, but he has no illusions about influencing anybody.

Despite meeting a lot of people through his activities as an event planner, a DJ, and surfer, Warren seldom encounters people who are interested in talking to him about the election.

Alex Hoopes, 26 (Executive Assistant)
Alex Hoopes has already submitted his absentee ballot for Gary Johnson as a way of expressing his support for the dismantling of intrusive “Security” measures, an end to the drug war, and a political process that doesn’t force a two-party system, Hoopes told The Nanfang.

However, he is registered in a state (Texas) that Republican candidate Mitt Romney is almost certain to sweep, so does not expect his vote to influence anything.

When he was younger, Hoopes would sometimes get annoyed by non-Americans who had strong opinions about his country’s politics, but now he appreciates that American politics has much influence around the world.

Hoopes occasionally meets a Chinese who judges him harshly for not voting Obama, but he seldom tries to influence other people’s political opinions.

“There’s plenty of evidence coming out of the social sciences that strong partisans double down when presented with evidence that they’re wrong, and those findings jibe with my experiences. Pretending otherwise is to fundamentally misunderstand humanity,” Hoopes told The Nanfang.

U.S. Citizens can start the procedure to register to vote at this website.

The post How Americans in the PRD follow the US election campaign… or don’t appeared first on The Nanfang.