What Did Carter Leave to China?---Exclusive Interview with the Carter Center’s China Director, Liu Yawei
卡特留给中国什么？---专访卡特中国中心主任刘亚伟
By Tang Jiajie (唐家婕)
[Editor’s Note: The interview with Liu Yawei, Director of the Carter Center’s China Program, reflects on the political legacy of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his relationship with China. Carter was instrumental in normalizing U.S.-China relations in 1979, an event that shocked many in China who had grown up with anti-American narratives. After leaving office, Carter maintained strong ties with China, making frequent visits and fostering mutual understanding. His first impression of China in 1949, as a naval officer, contrasted sharply with the nation he saw after its reform and opening up.
The Carter Center played a pivotal role in observing China’s rural elections, viewing them as a stepping-stone for political reform. From 1996 to 2012, the Center provided technical assistance and training, advocating for transparency and accountability. However, in 2012, political constraints led the Center to shift its focus from domestic affairs to U.S.-China relations.
Liu highlighted Carter’s humility and humanitarianism, noting his refusal to indulge in luxury and his commitment to fighting neglected diseases like Guinea-worm disease. Carter’s political legacy in China includes leading by example, establishing diplomatic ties, and encouraging reform. Liu emphasized that while political reform must be adapted to China’s context, Carter’s influence remains a beacon of democratic values and global goodwill.]
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has passed away, and people around the world are paying tribute to his contributions to global peace. Beyond his role in normalizing U.S.-China relations, Carter had a deep sense of humanitarian concern and supported political reform efforts in China. In this interview, our reporter, Tang Jiajie (唐家婕), speaks with Liu Yawei (刘亚伟), Director of the Carter Center’s China Program, to explore the political legacy Carter left for China.
From an “Anti-American Youth” to Carter’s Trusted Chinese Colleague
Reporter: Professor Liu, you began serving as Deputy Director of the Carter Center’s China Program in 1998, became its Director in 2005, and have worked with President Carter for over two decades. Could you tell us a bit about the background of your relationship with him?
Liu Yawei: It all started in 1978. I was a college freshman when, out of the blue, I heard over the loudspeakers that the United States and China had established diplomatic relations. Carter was the president who made that happen. We were stunned. Back then, we believed our mission was to eradicate American imperialism, so it was completely unexpected to hear about normalization on the radio. Then, around Chinese New Year 1979, Deng Xiaoping (邓小平) visited the United States. That was the first time I saw Carter—and America—on television.
Before that, we had always assumed America was corrupt and on the decline while China was steadily rising. Suddenly, we saw a vibrant United States, with President Carter hosting banquets for Deng Xiaoping at the White House. We watched Deng visit Atlanta, Houston, and Seattle. It felt like an America, unlike anything we had been taught to expect.
In 1989, I went to Emory University (埃默里大学) for my studies. President Carter was a Distinguished Professor there and met with international students every fall. In 1996, my professor, Robert Pastor (罗伯特·帕斯特), who worked at the Carter Center (卡特中心), asked if I would like to participate in the Center’s election observation program in China. I said, “China doesn’t have elections, and I know nothing about them.” He replied, “That’s fine. I’ll gradually let you learn more about election processes.”
In 1996, I joined the Carter Center’s delegation to observe the Nicaraguan presidential election. That was my first close-up encounter with Carter. When I officially joined the Carter Center in 1998, I saw him about every two or three weeks or at least once a month, and that continued until I last accompanied him on a trip to China in September 2014.
Reporter: Did you often travel to China with him?
Liu Yawei: Yes. I first traveled with him in 2001, and our last trip was in September 2014. Between them, there were six or seven visits. Starting in 2007, he traveled to China nearly every year.
In the photo from January 29, 1979, then-U.S. President Jimmy Carter (卡特) greets Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping (邓小平) at the White House. (Associated Press Archive)
Carter’s Bond with China
Reporter: After leaving office, why did President Carter visit China so often? Where did that passion for China come from?
Liu Yawei: His first visit to China was back in 1949 when he was a U.S. Navy officer serving on a submarine docking in Qingdao and Shanghai. After he left the military and pursued a political career in the United States, he didn’t return to China until 1981, when he was no longer in the White House. Deng Xiaoping (邓小平) invited him, saying, “You are the president who established ties; we will welcome you to China any time.”
After 1996, the Carter Center began observing China’s rural elections. President Carter started visiting more frequently and initiated various initiatives to foster mutual understanding between the U.S. and China. His final trip to China was in September 2014, just before his 90th birthday. This trip also coincided with the 65th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and the 35th anniversary of U.S.-China diplomatic relations.
Reporter: Did President Carter ever talk with you about how his impressions of China evolved over time?
Liu Yawei: Whenever he spoke about it, he mentioned how China was still in the midst of civil war when he first arrived in 1949; by 1981, it was entering the early stages of reform and opening. Each time he visited China, it looked different from the time before—he found that the country’s rapid transformation was a direct result of reform and opening-up, as well as the normalization of relations with the United States.
Carter’s Focus on China’s Political Reform
Reporter: Beyond fostering collaborations with Chinese academic institutions in the 1980s—such as providing prosthetics and educational support to people who were deaf, blind, or otherwise disabled—the Carter Center also worked on grassroots democracy in rural areas. It even got involved with local elections in China. Why was this initiative so important to President Carter?
Liu Yawei: One of the Carter Center’s missions is to promote and strengthen democracy worldwide. Most people know about our public health programs, but our other key focus is election observation. When the Chinese government invited the Carter Center to observe elections in China, the process differed from that in other countries. Elsewhere, the Center typically observes national-level elections—presidential or parliamentary races or referendums—but in China, our role was limited to local village committees, the minor grassroots units.
Beyond observing, we provided technical assistance to help standardize electoral procedures. We essentially treated village committee elections as a catalyst for China’s political reform. In 2002, we launched a website called “China Elections and Governance,” although its Chinese-language version eventually remained accessible only from the United States after 2012, when it went offline in China.
Because our site was in Chinese, most of its editors and technical staff were based there. We also held training sessions for newly elected village committee directors and neighborhood committee members and advocated for transparency. Though the Carter Center had no physical office in China, we worked with local governments or NGOs through partners who supported us.
Challenges for International NGOs in 2012
Reporter: The year 2012 marked a turning point for international NGOs operating in China. Some news reports mentioned that Xi Jinping (习近平) told Carter that the Center should shift its focus away from research and monitoring of rural elections and instead concentrate on government transparency issues.
Liu Yawei: Yes. After 2012, we basically withdrew from what you might call “domestic affairs” in China and shifted to working on U.S.-China relations more broadly. At that time, China conveyed a clear message: “You (Carter) are the president who established diplomatic relations. We hope you will do more to promote stable ties, improve relations, and enhance understanding between our two peoples.” We were also acutely aware that the political “wind” had changed.
Reporter: Given this “shift,” how did President Carter, who had hoped to see China’s economic and political reforms advance, respond?
Liu Yawei: If you want to continue engaging with China, then you need to do the work the Chinese government agrees to or allows you to do. Otherwise, the Carter Center would have been forced underground.
As an international NGO, the Carter Center always operates with the host government’s permission, whether we work with local officials or NGOs. If the government pushes back, we adapt to what our hosts are willing to let us accomplish.
Reporter: In recent years, U.S.-China relations have undergone massive shifts that seem at odds with the kind of relationship Carter once envisioned. How did he talk about these changes?
Liu Yawei: He believed that because China and the United States differ in history, culture, and, most importantly, political systems, the two countries must set aside their differences in order to coexist peacefully and jointly advance global peace and economic development. He often remarked that when he and Deng Xiaoping were negotiating diplomatic normalization, the gap between the two sides was far greater than it is now—yet they pulled it off.
In his view, whether the U.S. president is Donald Trump or Joe Biden, it should still be possible to find common ground with China. This somewhat reflects what Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been saying: “Cooperate where we can, compete if we must, and confront conflict if it arises.” China, on the other hand, seems to want consensus on all fronts in order to cooperate—otherwise, they feel they are being simultaneously contained, competed against, and asked to collaborate, which they reject. So the situation now is quite different.
Currently, the Carter Center carries out many projects in developing countries. We devote most of our time and energy to exploring whether China and the U.S. can collaborate in various spheres, such as Africa.
Three Political Legacies Carter Left for China
Reporter: In your view, what political legacy did Carter leave to China?
Liu Yawei: I think the most significant legacy is that he led by example. As the president of a superpower, he always saw himself as an ordinary individual. After leaving the White House, he dedicated himself to countless humanitarian causes worldwide. When people think of President Carter, they think of a high-ranking official who strove to alleviate suffering for those in need. The power of that example and the inspiration it offers will never fade.
Second, for China specifically, he was the “normalization president.” China often credits President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger for their role in U.S.-China relations—and indeed, Nixon sent Kissinger to open channels in 1971 and personally visited China in 1972, initiating the thaw. But it wasn’t until seven years later that Carter made the final decision to establish diplomatic ties. That achievement should also be remembered as Carter’s.
Third, Carter consistently encouraged China’s reform. Normalizing relations helped reintegrate China into the Western world, and the ensuing reforms propelled the nation’s economic modernization. However, political reform remained unfinished. Thus, the Carter Center and Carter himself continued pushing for political change in China.
Political reform in China won’t happen simply because Americans say so, nor will it follow another country’s template. It has to grow out of China’s own circumstances and political arrangements. Our efforts at the time were aimed at figuring out what reforms could genuinely be carried out in China—reforms that might help it advance toward a political system that offered choices and demanded accountability. From 1996 to 2012, that was our mission for nearly fifteen years.
Reporter: People have long praised Carter’s down-to-earth style. Has your close work with him borne this out?
Liu Yawei: Absolutely. This was a leader who once held tremendous power, yet after leaving the White House, he lived as an ordinary man from a small town in Georgia. For instance, on my first trip with him to China, the hosts offered a stretch limousine, but he refused. We all rode in the same van instead. When they reserved the presidential suite for him, he insisted on a standard suite for him and Mrs. Carter, which was nothing fancy.
He also had a profound sense of humanitarian care. Most of the Carter Center’s resources go to fighting neglected diseases, particularly in Africa. One of his long-standing goals was eradicating Guinea worm disease. When the Center first tackled it, there were 3.5 million cases worldwide every year. By 2022, there were only 13. Carter once said his greatest hope was that these worms would be gone before he was.
Reporter: Thank you for taking the time to speak with us.
Liu Yawei: Thank you.
This report is from Radio Free China (自由亚洲电台 2024.12.29). The translation is an independent yet well-intentioned effort by the China Thought Express editorial team to bridge ideas between the Chinese and English-speaking worlds. The original text is available here:
http://hx.cnd.org/2025/01/03/%e5%94%90%e5%ae%b6%e5%a9%95%ef%bc%9a%e4%b8%93%e8%ae%bf%e5%8d%a1%e7%89%b9%e4%b8%ad%e5%9b%bd%e4%b8%ad%e5%bf%83%e4%b8%bb%e4%bb%bb%e5%88%98%e4%ba%9a%e4%bc%9f%ef%bc%9a%e5%8d%a1%e7%89%b9%e7%95%99%e7%bb%99/
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