We have never feared placing our values and our form of government up against any competitor. Give us half a chance, and we will win. Modern China represents just this sort of opportunity. We want to appeal to the Chinese people. To reach them we must be there, on the ground, spreading our values and the knowledge that there is a far better, nobler form of government than communism.
Ignorance is the ally of repressive governments.
Expanded trade, which increases interaction with American values, is essential to changing a closed society. And in the battle for China's future, one Chinese entrepreneur is worth countless government bureaucrats. Over the past century, communist countries have run from this competition. They have hidden their people behind walls and fortified borders, knowing that if their citizens were exposed to our values, then the battle would be lost. As a great power built on a foundation of timeless virtues, we fear no competing political systems.