2008年夏天，美国《纽约时报》著名专栏作家托马斯·弗里德曼(Thomas L. Friedman)参加了在北京举行的奥运会，之后途经上海返回纽约。他有感而发，写了篇很有影响的评论，题为“中美这七年”，刊登在当年9月10日的《纽约时报》上。他写道：
当我坐在鸟巢的座位上，欣赏闭幕式上数千名中国舞蹈演员、鼓手、歌手以及踩着高跷的杂技演员魔幻般的精彩演出时，我不由得回想起过去这七年中美两国的不同经历：中国一直在忙于奥运会的准备工作，我们忙着对付“基地”组织;他们一直在建设更好的体育馆、地铁、机场、道路以及公园，而我们一直在建造更好的金属探测器、悍马军车和无人驾驶侦察机……差异已经开始显现。
你可以比较一下纽约肮脏陈旧的拉瓜地亚机场和上海造型优美的国际机场。当你驱车前往曼哈顿时，你会发现一路上的基础设施有多么破败不堪。再体验一下上海时速高达220英里的磁悬浮列车，它应用的是电磁推进技术，而不是普通的钢轮和轨道，眨眼工夫，你已经抵达上海市区。然后扪心自问：究竟是谁生活在第三世界国家?
我认为，作为一个现代国家，中国接受了现代国家主权和人权的主要观念。但中华文明的种种特质又使它与众不同。
人口
中国发展模式的一个特点就是：学习+创新+巨大人口产生的规模效应+影响中国和世界。许多境外企业投资中国都有一个口号，只要能在中国做到第一，就能做到世界第一。这个趋势随着中国的崛起正在开始扩大到越来越多的领域，如旅游、航空、影视、体育、教育、新能源、现代化模式、高铁等。
疆域
我们一些人比较羡慕小国寡民的生活，实际上小国有小国的困难。小国经不起风浪，而大国遇到风浪，回旋余地大得多。
智利是相对发达的发展中国家，但2010年一场大地震，GDP就跌掉一大块，整个经济可能两年内都喘不过气，而中国即使遇到汶川大地震这么大的天灾，整个国家经济纹丝不动。
对于绝大多数国家来说，产业升级往往意味着产业迁移到外国，而中国在自己内部就可以进行大规模的产业梯度转移，这就延长了中国制造业的生命周期。
文化
过去三十多年的中西文化碰撞，没有使多数中国人丧失文化自信。中国人今天的孔子热、老子热、诵经热、书画热、茶道热、旧宅热、文物热、中医热、养生热等，都体现了中国传统文化的复兴。
中国人本文化衍生出来的餐饮文化、养生文化、休闲文化也是其他文化所难以比拟的。中国任何地方的街头餐馆都能做出三四十种菜，而在美国绝大多数的餐馆只有汉堡包加土豆条，能有三四个菜就不错了。欧洲餐馆的菜肴要丰富一些，但也很少超过七八个品种。
我们有些人总是担心中国人缺少宗教情怀。其实只要稍微熟悉一点世界历史的人就知道，人类历史上宗教冲突导致了无数的战争，光是基督教各个教派之间以及基督教与伊斯兰教之间的冲突就有上千年的历史，造成了无数生命遭杀戮的人间悲剧。所以，我们的老百姓不一定信教。
经济
中国传统意义上的经济学，严格讲不是“市场经济学”，而是“人本经济学”。在中国漫长的历史上，一个政·府如果不能发展经济和改善民生，不能处理好大灾大难，就会失去民心的支持，失去“天命”，最终被人民推翻。
政 治
中国今天的政党是历史上统一的儒家执政集团传统的延续，而不是代表不同利益群体进行互相竞争的西方政党。西方不少人只认同多党竞争产生的政权合法性，这是十分浅薄的政治观念。
我曾遇到美国学者质疑中国政权的合法性，我问他为什么不首先质疑一下他自己国家的合法性：你占了别人的土地，通过殖民、移民、灭绝印第安人，才形成了今天的美国。我请他给我解释这样的国家合法性和正 当性在哪里?最后他只能跟我说，这是历史。
那么，我们是否可以用中国“选贤任能”的理念来质疑西方政·权合法性的来源么?小布什执政八年给美国带来了经济衰退，给伊拉克带来了灭顶之灾，给世界带来了金融海啸，就是一个例子。中国历史合法性的最大特点就是“选贤任能”的政治传统和“民心向背”的治国。
中国政治文化中的“全国一盘棋”、“一方有难，八方支援”等理念，其他文化无法产生。我曾和印度学者一起探讨中国模式，他们说从表面看，中国是中央集权，但中国每一项改革实际上都有很强的地方特色，互相竞争又互相补充，所以中国体制要比印度的体制更有活力。
他们学习了西方，已经建立了强大的现代政府体系，但同时又拥有自己独特的政治文化资源，两者的结合使我们更容易克服今天困扰西方民主制度的民粹主义、短视主义、法条主义等问题。
在政治层面，西方许多人也想当然地认为随着中国中产阶层的壮大，中国也会接受西方对抗性政治模式。但他们今天也发现，今天的中国中产阶层似乎比其他任何阶层都更珍惜中国的政治稳定。他们了解西方“民主化”已经给许多国家带来混乱动荡，了解自己辛辛苦苦的财富积累得益于中国三十多年的政治稳定。
坦率地说，中国今天所展现出来的一切，绝对不是“先进”和“落后”、“民主”和“专制”、“高人权”和“低人权”这些过分简约甚至简陋的概念可以概括的。
【作者简介】Thomas L. Friedman is an internationally renowned author, reporter, and, columnist—the recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes and the author of six bestselling books, among them From Beirut to Jerusalem and The World Is Flat. Friedman currently writes a weekly column for The New York Times.Thomas Loren Friedman was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on July 20, 1953, and grew up in the middle-class Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park.
The difference is starting to show. Just compare arriving at La Guardia’s dumpy terminal in New York City and driving through the crumbling infrastructure into Manhattan with arriving at Shanghai’s sleek airport and taking the 220-mile-per-hour magnetic levitation train, which uses electromagnetic propulsion instead of steel wheels and tracks, to get to town in a blink.
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Then ask yourself: Who is living in the third world country?
Yes, if you drive an hour out of Beijing, you meet the vast dirt-poor third world of China. But here’s what’s new: The rich parts of China, the modern parts of Beijing or Shanghai or Dalian, are now more state of the art than rich America. The buildings are architecturally more interesting, the wireless networks more sophisticated, the roads and trains more efficient and nicer. And, I repeat, they did not get all this by discovering oil. They got it by digging inside themselves.
I realize the differences: We were attacked on 9/11; they were not. We have real enemies; theirs are small and mostly domestic. We had to respond to 9/11 at least by eliminating the Al Qaeda base in Afghanistan and investing in tighter homeland security. They could avoid foreign entanglements. Trying to build democracy in Iraq, though, which I supported, was a war of choice and is unlikely to ever produce anything equal to its huge price tag.
But the first rule of holes is that when you’re in one, stop digging. When you see how much modern infrastructure has been built in China since 2001, under the banner of the Olympics, and you see how much infrastructure has been postponed in America since 2001, under the banner of the war on terrorism, it’s clear that the next seven years need to be devoted to nation-building in America.
We need to finish our business in Iraq and Afghanistan as quickly as possible, which is why it is a travesty that the Iraqi Parliament has gone on vacation while 130,000 U.S. troops are standing guard. We can no longer afford to postpone our nation-building while Iraqis squabble over whether to do theirs.
A lot of people are now advising Barack Obama to get dirty with John McCain. Sure, fight fire with fire. That’s necessary, but it is not sufficient.
Obama got this far because many voters projected onto him that he could be the leader of an American renewal. They know we need nation-building at home now — not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, not in Georgia, but in America. Obama cannot lose that theme.
He cannot let Republicans make this election about who is tough enough to stand up to Russia or bin Laden. It has to be about who is strong enough, focused enough, creative enough and unifying enough to get Americans to rebuild America. The next president can have all the foreign affairs experience in the world, but it will be useless, utterly useless, if we, as a country, are weak.
Obama is more right than he knows when he proclaims that this is “our” moment, this is “our” time. But it is our time to get back to work on the only home we have, our time for nation-building in America. I never want to tell my girls — and I’m sure Obama feels the same about his — that they have to go to China to see the future.
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