This is a podcast from the archives of the BBC Reith Lectures. This lecture in the series

Chinese Vistas, given by Professor Jonathan Spence, was originally broadcast in 2008.

Hello and welcome to the Asia Society on Park Avenue, New York, for the third in our series

of Reith Lectures. Their title is Chinese Vistas, and the Asia

Society is a good place from which to continue our exploration of how China's history influences

the way it thinks today. The Society was founded in 1956 by the Rockefeller family to promote

greater understanding of Asia in the United States.

Today, it has offices across several American cities and around the world, and its work

hasn't gone unnoticed by those at the heart of China's political machine.

The president himself, Hu Jintao, has praised the Asia Society's efforts to strengthen

cooperation between his country and the United States. We started these lectures in London, where we

heard about the lasting effect of Confucian thought on the development of China. Last week in Liverpool,

we examined Britain's relationship with it.

And tonight, we're turning our attention to a crucial aspect of China's attitude towards

the West, its relationship with America. These two great countries are now economic rivals,

and China seems set to grow to a position where it may be able to challenge

America's military and financial might. Can this ever be a harmonious process, or will it always

be deviled by friction? Our guide through these important, complex and highly sensitive issues is one of the West's most

eminent authorities on China and its history. Ladies and gentlemen, will you please welcome

the BBC Reith Lecturer for 2008 Professor Jonathan Spence. Well, thank you for this chance to give the third of the wreath lectures.

And the title I chose was American Dreams.

And it seemed at the time that that was fairly straightforward.

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