On the evening of Nov. 15, President Barack Obama, the youthful leader of one of the world's youngest countries, begins his first visit to China, among the world's most ancient societies. Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, have much to discuss. Nukes in Iran and North Korea. China's surging military spending. Trade imbalances. Climate change.

    But the visit comes at an awkward moment for the U.S. China, despite its 5,000-year burden of history, has emerged as a dynamo of optimism, experimentation and growth. It has defied the global economic slump, and the sense that it's the world's ascendant power has never been stronger. The U.S., by contrast, seems suddenly older and frailer. America's national mood is still in a funk, its economy foundering, its red-vs.-blue politics as rancorous as ever. The U.S. may be one of the world's oldest capitalist countries and China one of the youngest, but you couldn't blame Obama if he leaned over to Hu at some point and asked, "What are you guys doing right?"

    Could the world's lone but weary superpower actually learn something from China? It's a politically incorrect question, of course. China is an authoritarian nation; its ruling Communist Party deals ruthlessly with any challenge to its hegemony. It remains, relatively speaking, a poor, developing country with huge problems to confront, massive corruption and environmental degradation being Nos. 1 and 1a. Still, this is a moment of humility for the U.S., and China is doing some important things right. If the U.S. were to ask the Chinese what it could learn from their example, it might gain some insight into what it's doing right and wrong. Here are five lessons from China's success story:

    1. Be Ambitious

    One day this summer, Sean Maloney, an executive vice president at Intel, was bouncing from one appointment to another in northeastern China, speeding along in a van traversing newly built highways. He gazed out at one of the world's biggest construction projects: a network of high-speed train lines - covering 10,000 miles （16,000 km） nationwide - that China is building. As far as the eye could see, there sat vast concrete support struts, one after another, exactly 246 ft. （75 m） apart. Each was full of steel cables and weighed about 800 tons. "We used to build stuff too," Maloney mused, unprompted. "But now it's NIMBY [not in my backyard] every time you try to do something. Here," he joked, "it's more like IMBY. There's stuff happening here, everywhere and always."

    It's not just NIMBYism that constrains the U.S. these days, of course. America is close to tapped out financially, with budget deficits this year and next exceeding $1 trillion and forecast to remain above $500 billion through 2019. But sometimes the country seems tapped out in terms of vision and investment for the future.

    Some economists believe that given its stage of development, China spends too much on expensive items like high-speed rail lines. But step back from the individual infrastructure projects and the debates about whether a given investment is necessary, and what's palpable in China is the sense of forward motion, of energy. No foreigner - at least not one I've met in five years of living here - even bothers denying it. And the Chinese take it for granted. When a brand-new six-lane highway opened in suburban Shanghai in October, Zhong Li Ping, who shuttles migrant workers to the city and back to their hometowns, said, "I don't know what took them so long." In truth, it took about two years - roughly the time it would take to get the environmental and other regulatory permits for a new highway in the U.S. If, that is, you could get them at all.

    There's no direct translation into Chinese of the phrase can-do spirit. But yong wang zhi qian probably suffices. Literally, it means "march forward courageously." China has - and has had for years now - a can-do spirit that's unmistakable. Americans know the phrase well. They invented it. It used to define them.

    Critics of the authoritarian Chinese government would say it's a system more accurately called "can do - or else." And they have a point. No one in the U.S. would argue that it should adopt China's dictatorial style of government. America doesn't need to displace tens of thousands of people in order to build a massive dam, as China did in Hubei province from 1994 to 2006. （The value of checks and balances is, in fact, among the many things China could learn from the U.S.） But you don't have to be a card-carrying communist to wonder how effectively the U.S. develops and executes ambitious projects. Ask James McGregor. He's a former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China and now a business consultant who divides his time between the two countries. "One key thing we can learn from China is setting goals, making plans and focusing on moving the country ahead as a nation," he says. "These guys have taken the old five-year plans and stood them on their head. Instead of deciding which factory gets which raw materials, which products are made, how they are priced and where they are sold, their planning now consists of 'How do we build a world-class silicon-chip industry in five years? How do we become a global player in car-manufacturing?'"

    ome of this is the natural arc of a huge, fast-growing country in the process of modernization. The U.S. in the late 19th century was nothing if not what Intel's Maloney would call an IMBY country. America was ambitious. There's no secret formula to help the nation get back its zeal for what it used to enthusiastically and sincerely call progress. But even though the U.S. is a mature, developed country, many economists believe it has shortchanged infrastructure investment for decades. It possibly did so again in this year's stimulus package. Just $144 billion of the $787 billion stimulus bill Congress passed earlier this year went to direct infrastructure spending. According to IHS Global Insight, an economic-consulting firm, U.S. spending on transportation infrastructure will actually decline overall in 2009 when state budgets are factored in - this at a time when the American Society of Civil Engineers contends that the U.S. should invest $1.6 trillion to upgrade its aging infrastructure over the next five years.

    When the economic crisis hit China late last year, by contrast, almost half of the emergency spending Beijing approved - $585 billion spread over two years - was directed at projects that accelerated China's massive infrastructure build-out. "That money went into the real economy very quickly," says economist Albert Keidel of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

    But it's not just emergency spending on bridges, roads and high-speed rail networks that's helping growth in China. Patrick Tam, general partner at Tsing Capital, a venture-capital firm in Beijing, says the government is aggressively helping seed the development of new green-tech industries. An example: 13 of China's biggest cities will have all-electric bus fleets within five years. "China is eventually going to dominate the industry for electric vehicles," Tam says, "in part because the central government has both the vision and the financial wherewithal to make that happen." Tam, a graduate of MIT and the University of California, Berkeley, says he does deals in Beijing rather than Silicon Valley these days "because I believe this is where these new industries will really take shape. China's got the energy, the drive and the market to do it." Isn't that the sort of thing venture capitalists used to say about the U.S.?

    2. Education Matters

    On a recent Saturday afternoon, at a nice restaurant in central Shanghai, Liu Zhi-he sat fidgeting at the table, knowing that it was about time for him to leave. All around him sat relatives from an extended family that had gathered for a momentous occasion: the 90th birthday of Liu's great-grandmother Ling Shu Zhen, the still spry and elegant matriarch of a sprawling clan. But Liu had to leave because it was time for him to go to school. This Saturday, as he does every Saturday, Liu was attending two special classes. He takes a math tutorial, and he studies English.

    Liu is 7 years old.

    A lot of foreigners - and, indeed, a fair number of Chinese - believe that the obsession （and that's the right word） with education in China is overdone. The system stresses rote memorization. It drives kids crazy - aren't 7-year-olds supposed to have fun on Saturday afternoons? - and doesn't necessarily prepare them, economically speaking, for the job market or, emotionally speaking, for adulthood. Add to that the fact that the system, while incredibly competitive, has become corrupt.

    All true - and all, for the most part, beside the point. After decades of investment in an educational system that reaches the remotest peasant villages, the literacy rate in China is now over 90%. （The U.S.'s is 86%.） And in urban China, in particular, students don't just learn to read. They learn math. They learn science. As William McCahill, a former deputy chief of mission in the U.S. embassy in Beijing, says, "Fundamentally, they are getting the basics right, particularly in math and science. We need to do the same. Their kids are often ahead of ours."

    What the Chinese can teach are verities, home truths that have started to make a comeback in the U.S. but that could still use a push. The Chinese understand that there is no substitute for putting in the hours and doing the work. And more than anything else, the kids in China do lots of work. In the U.S., according to a 2007 survey by the Department of Education, 37% of 10th-graders in 2002 spent more than 10 hours on homework each week. That's not bad; in fact, it's much better than it used to be （in 1980 a mere 7% of kids did that much work at home each week）. But Chinese students, according to a 2006 report by the Asia Society, spend twice as many hours doing homework as do their U.S. peers.

    Part of the reason is family involvement. Consider Liu, the 7-year-old who had to leave the birthday party to go to Saturday school. Both his parents work, so when he goes home each day, his grandparents are there to greet him and put him through his after-school paces. His mother says simply, "This is normal. All his classmates work like this after school."

    Yes, big corporate employers in China will tell you the best students coming out of U.S. universities are just as bright as and, generally speaking, far more creative than their counterparts from China's élite universities. But the big hump in the bell curve - the majority of the school-age population - matters a lot for the economic health of countries. Simply put, the more smart, well-educated people there are - of the sort that hard work creates - the more economies （and companies） benefit. Remember what venture capitalist Tam said about China and the electric-vehicle industry. A single, relatively new company working on developing an electric-car battery - BYD Co. - employs an astounding 10,000 engineers.

    China, critics will point out, doesn't produce （at least not yet） many Nobel Prize winners. But don't think the basic educational competence of the workforce isn't a key factor in its having become the manufacturing workshop of the world. It isn't just about cheap labor; it's about smart labor. "Whether it's line workers or engineers, we're finding the candlepower of our employees here as good as or better than anywhere in the world," says Nick Reilly, a top executive at General Motors in Shanghai. "It all starts with the emphasis families put on the importance of education. That puts pressure on the government to deliver a decent system."

    And the Chinese government responds to that pressure in some intriguing ways. It insists that primary-school teachers in math and science have degrees in those subjects. （Less than half of eighth-grade math teachers in the U.S. majored in math.） There is a "master teacher" program nationwide that provides mentoring for younger teachers. Zhang Dianzhou, a professor emeritus of mathematics at East China Normal University in Shanghai who co-chaired a committee charged with redesigning high school mathematics programs across the country, says recent changes have begun to reflect more of a "real-world emphasis." Computer-science courses, for example, have been integrated into the math curriculum for high school students. And China is placing even more importance on teaching young students English and other foreign languages. If you think China's willingness to constantly fine-tune its educational system is not going to have much of an impact 20 years from now, there's a 7-year-old boy in Shanghai who'd be happy to discuss the issue with you. In English.

    3. Look After the Elderly

    it's hard to imagine two societies that deal with their elderly as differently as the U.S. and China. And I can vouch for that firsthand. My wife Junling is a Shanghai native, and last month for the first time we visited my father at a nursing home in the U.S. She was shaken by the experience and later told me, "You know, in China, it's a great shame to put a parent into a nursing home." In China the social contract has been straightforward for centuries: parents raise children; then the children care for the parents as they reach their dotage. When, for example, real estate developer Jiang Xiao Li and his wife recently bought a new, larger apartment in Shanghai, they did so in part because they know that in a few years, his parents will move in with them. Jiang's parents will help take care of Jiang's daughter, and as they age, Jiang and his wife will help take care of them. As China slowly develops a better-funded and more reliable social-security system for retirees - which it has begun - the economic necessity of generations living together will diminish a bit. But no one believes that as China gets richer, the cultural norm will shift too significantly.

    To a degree, of course, three generations living under one roof has long happened in the U.S., but in the 20th century, America became a particularly mobile and rootless society. It is hard to care for one's parents when they live three time zones away.

    Home care for the elderly will most likely make a comeback in the U.S. out of sheer economic necessity, however. The number of elderly Americans will soar from 38.6 million in 2007 to 71.5 million in 2030. But, says Arnold Eppel, who recently retired as head of the department of aging in Baltimore County, Maryland, "There won't be enough spots for them" in the country's overwhelmed nursing-home system. Appreciating the magnitude of the coming crisis, the U.S. government has begun to respond. Two new initiatives - Nursing Home Diversion and Money Follows the Person - expand subsidies for home elder care, and the Veterans Health Administration has just put in effect its own similar initiative. "The whole trend will be into home care, because nursing homes are too expensive," Eppel says, noting that nursing-home care in the U.S. costs about $85,000 annually per resident.

    In China, senior-care costs are, for the most part, borne by families. For millions of poor Chinese, that's a burden as well as a responsibility, and it unquestionably skews both spending and saving patterns in ways that China needs to change （see Save More, below）. For middle-class and rich Chinese, those costs are a more manageable responsibility but one that nonetheless ripples through their economic decision-making. Still, there are benefits that balance the financial hardship: grandparents tutor young children while Mom and Dad work; they acculturate the youngest generation to the values of family and nation; they provide a sense of cultural continuity that helps bind a society. China needs to make obvious changes to its elder-care system as it becomes a wealthier society, but as millions of U.S. families make the brutal decision about whether to send aging parents into nursing homes, a bigger dose of the Chinese ethos may well be returning to America.

    4. Save More

    You've now heard it so many times, you can probably repeat it in your sleep. President Obama will no doubt make the point publicly when he gets to Beijing: the Chinese need to spend more; they need to consume more; they need - believe it or not - to become more like Americans, for the sake of the global economy.

    And it's all true. But the other side of that equation is that the U.S. needs to save more. For the moment, American households actually are doing so. After the personal-savings rate dipped to zero in 2005, the shock of the economic crisis last year prompted people to snap shut their wallets. Now that it's pouring, in other words, American households have decided to save for a rainy day. The savings rate is currently about 4% and has gone as high as 6% this year.

    In China, the household-savings rate exceeds 20%. It is partly for straightforward policy reasons. As we've seen, wage earners are expected to care for not only their children but also their aging parents. And there is, to date, only the flimsiest of publicly funded health care and pension systems, which increases incentives for individuals to save while they are working. But China, like many other East Asian countries, is a society that has esteemed personal financial prudence for centuries. There is no chance that will change anytime soon, even if the government creates a better social safety net and successfully encourages greater consumer spending.

    Why does the U.S. need to learn a little frugality? Because healthy savings rates, including government and business savings, are one of the surest indicators of a country's long-term financial health. High savings lead, over time, to increased investment, which in turn generates productivity gains, innovation and job growth. In short, savings are the seed corn of a good economic harvest.

    The U.S. government thus needs to get in on the act as well. By running perennial deficits, it is dis-saving, even as households save more. Peter Orszag, Obama's Budget Director, recently called the U.S. budget deficits unsustainable - this year's is $1.4 trillion - and he's right. To date, the U.S. has seemed unable to have what Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has called an "adult conversation" about the consequences of spending so much more than is taken in. That needs to change. And though Hu Jintao and the rest of the Chinese leadership aren't inclined to lecture visiting Presidents, he might gently hint that Beijing is getting a little nervous about the value of the dollar - which has fallen 15% since March, in large part because of increasing fears that America's debt load is becoming unmanageable.

    That's what happens when you're the world's biggest creditor: you get to drop hints like that, which would be enough by themselves to create international economic havoc if they were ever leaked. （Every time any official in Beijing muses publicly about seeking an alternative to the U.S. dollar for the $2.1 trillion China holds in reserve, currency traders have a heart attack.） If Americans became a bit more like the Chinese - if they saved more and spent less, consistently over time - they wouldn't have to worry about all that.

    5. Look over the Horizon

    The energy that so many outsiders feel when they are in China and that President Obama may see when he is there comes not just from the frenetic activity that is visible everywhere. It comes also from a sense that it's harnessed to something bigger. The government isn't frantically building all this infrastructure just to create make-work jobs. And kids aren't studying themselves sleepless because it's a lot of fun. A few years ago, I interviewed Zhang Xin, a young man from a deeply poor agricultural province in central China. His parents were wheat farmers and lived in a tiny one-room house next to the fields. He had graduated from Tsinghua University - China's MIT - and gotten a job as a software engineer at Huawei, the Cisco of China. His success, Zhang told me one day, had changed his family forever. None of his descendants would "ever work in the wheat fields again. Not my children. Not their children. That life is over." （And neither would his parents. They moved to prosperous Shenzhen, just north of Hong Kong, soon after he started his new job.）

    Multiply that young man's story by millions, and you get a sense of what a forward-looking country this once very backward society has become. A smart American who lived in China for years and who wants to avoid being identified publicly （perhaps because he'd be labeled a "panda hugger," the timeworn epithet tossed at anyone who has anything good to say about China） puts it this way: "China is striving to become what it has not yet become. It is upwardly mobile, consciously, avowedly and - as its track record continues to strengthen - proudly so."

    Proudly so, because as Zhang understood, hard work today means a much better life decades from now for those who will inherit what he helped create. And if that sounds familiar to Americans - marooned, for the moment, in the deepest recession in 26 years - it should.

    11月15日晚上，奥巴马总统，世界上最年轻国家之一的最年轻的领导人，在世界最古老社会之一的中国开始了首次访问。奥巴马和中国国家主席胡锦涛有很多主题可讨论；伊朗和朝鲜的核武、中国军费开支的激增、贸易的不平衡、及全球气候的变异。

    但对美国来说此次访问不无尴尬。中国，尽管背负了5000年的历史重担，已成为全球乐观，试验和发展的动力；无视全球的经济萧条，仍亟於成为世界方兴未艾的权力中心。美国则正好相反，似乎突显老态颓唐。美国整体情绪仍然畏缩，经济衰沉，红蓝营政治交恶仍缠斗不清。美国可能是世界上最古老的资本主义国家，而中国则是最年轻的。但如奥巴马对胡锦涛抛媚撒娇，偷问："你老兄是如何作到的？" 实则乃不得已。

    难道世界上唯一但已显疲惫的超级大国负屐求教於中国？自然这是一个不该问的政治问题。中国是一个专制国家，执政的共产党无情地处理任何对其霸权的挑战；但相对来说，仍是一个贫穷且面对许多巨大问题的发展中国家，广面的腐败和环境圬染是其首要和次首要问题。不过，这正是美国应谦卑的时刻，中国重大国策正确。如果美国求教中国，可能能深入了解美国自身的正确和错误之处。这里列有5项中国成功实例可兹为教训：

    1. 不折腾的魄力

    今夏某日，英特尔公司的执行副总裁马宏升，在中国东北周转於约会之间，当驾座快速地穿越新建的公路时，看到一个世界上最大建设之一的项目：即中国正在建设中的覆盖全中国 10000英里（16,000公里）的高速列车线路网络。极眼所尽，大量的混凝土支柱，每 246英尺（75米）一个接一个。每一个覆满重约 800吨的钢缆。"我们过去也建东西",马洛尼不觉得沉思。"但是每次你想做些事情的时候，邻避【不是在我家后院 --》环境正义的利己主义】总是使得百兴成废。在这里，"他开玩笑说，"这里更像邻逼【在我家后院-》环境正义利己主义的反义】。处处蓬勃，无处不是，永无歇止。"

    不仅仅是邻避思想内损了美国。美国正濒临破产，今明年预算赤字超过 $1万亿美元，2019年持续高于 $5000亿美元。而且似乎也乏匮远景和对未来的投资。

    一些经济学家认为，鉴于它的发展阶段，中国在高成本设施上花费太多，如高速铁路（列车）线。不过自个别基础设施项目评估和是否是必要的投资上退一步来看，无法忽视中国前进动感的能量。没有外国人 - 至少在我这5年中没有碰到一个 - 甚至会否认这点。而中国人本身也认为是这样。当 10月分一条全新的六车道高速公路在上海郊区启用，往载民工於城市家乡的锺立平说："我不知道为何等了这么久".事实上，费时两年 - 大致是在美国为新公路处理环境和办理其他行政许可所费的时间。当然是如果一切顺利的话。

    "Can-do" 精神没有直接的翻译。但勇望直前可概其意。从字面上看，它的意思的确是 "勇往直前".这是中国 - 而且已经多年了 - 具有的做事精神，这是明确无误的。美国人也知道这句话。是他们发明的。过去用来定义美国。

    对中国的独裁，批评者会说这是一个 "为或不为" 的系统，此自有其理。美国没有任何人会认为应采取中国政府的独断。美国并不需要像中国在 1994年至 2006年间，在湖北省动员数万人以建立庞大的大坝。（在制衡的取舍上，其中许多方面中国可以向美国学习） 不必成为载信用卡的共产党才能了解美国如何有效地开发和执行雄心勃勃的项目。此可请教詹姆斯麦格雷戈；前美国商会在中国的主席，现为商业顾问。现在中国和美国间作空中飞人。"我们可以借鉴中国的是目标确定，制定计划和整体动员",他说。"他们采取旧的五年计划，并贯彻执行，并非是那些工厂应获得何种原料，何种产品，如何定价和销售的微观细节，而是 '我们如何在 5年内建立一个世界级的硅芯片产业？我们如何成为一个汽车制造的全球玩家？"

    这是快速增长的国家的现代化进程中一个高峰。19世纪末美国如非如英特尔马洛尼所说的发起了全国动员，否则会是不足为取。那时的美国是雄心勃勃的。没有其他的秘方能再激励起过去那热情和真诚地所谓的要进步的狂热。但是，即使是美国，一个成熟已发展的国家，许多经济学家认为，已缺乏了几十年的基础设施投资。现况在今年的经济刺激计划中仍未被改善。今年年初国会通过的 $7878亿美元的刺激法案中，只有 $1440亿美元直接拨给基础设施开支。据经济咨询公司 IHS Global Insight,美国对交通基础设施投资的国家预算，实际上在 2009年全面下降 - 这与美国土木工程师协会所建议的，在未来5年内，美国应投资 $1.6万亿美元来提升已老化的基础设施，正好相反。

    当经济危机冲击的中国在去年年底反行其道，北京针对加速中国大规模基础设施建设项目，批准了近两年半的 $5,850亿美元紧急支出。"这钱迅速的注入了经济",卡内基国际和平基金会经济学家阿尔伯特凯德尔指出。

    中国的成长并非仅来自桥梁，道路和高速铁路网的紧急开支。青风险资本投资公司北京的合伙人谭家明认为，政府正积极帮助资助发展绿色高新技术产业。举个例子：五年内 13个中国最大的城市将会具备全电动巴士车队。" 中国最终会成电动车辆产业的主导地位",谭说，"部分原因是中央政府的远见和已有的财力能成就这种局势".毕业於麻省理工学院和加州大学伯克利分校的谭又说，他现在北京而不是硅谷处理业务，"因为我相信这里才是这新产业的真正孕育之地。中国已具有了这种能量，动力和市场".难道这不是曾几何时风险资本家对美国所说的吗？

    2. 作育英才

    最近的一个周六下午，一间位於上海城中的好餐馆，刘织坐立不安地知道已是他要离别的时候。所有的家族成员为了这重要时刻聚集在他身边：这是刘的仍轻快优雅的女族长曾祖母泠淑珍90岁的生日。但是，刘不得不离开，因为他要上学。这星期六，就如每个周六，刘需上两个特别班；数学和英语。

    刘只有7岁。

    很多外国人 - 以及相当多的中国人 - 认为中国人对教育过分执着（一语中地）.教育系统强调死记硬背，快把孩子们逼疯了 - 不是7岁的孩子应该有个快乐的周末下午吗？ - 从经济上讲，准备就业市场过早；从感情上来说，要作成年教育尚未到时候。更有甚者，这制度已造成畸形竞争，背离根本意义。

    这都是真的 - 但都扯远离题了！经过几十年的教育投资，含盖偏远的乡村农民，中国的识字率已超过 90%.（美国 86%）在中国城市，学生尤其不只是学习阅读；他们学数学，他们学科学。正如前美国驻北京大使馆执行使命的副局长威廉麦卡希尔所说："基本上，他们是对的，特别是在数学和科学的基本教育上。我们也必须这样做。他们的孩子往往超越我们的。"

    中国教育要务实，这在美国也是正卷土重来，但仍可加把劲。中国人了解，一分耕耘一分收获。更重要的事，中国的孩子们很努力。在美国，据教育部 2007年的调查，37% 十年级的学生，在2002年每周花在家庭作业的时间超过 10小时。这并不是坏事，事实上，它明显优于以往的（在1980年只有将近 7%的孩子每周投入相当的时间）.但中国学生，据亚洲协会 2006年的报告，比美国的同年级花两倍的时间做功课。

    部分原因是家庭的参与。像7岁的刘，不得不离开生日聚会去上周六特班。其父母都在上班，所以当他每天回家，是他的祖父母接他并督促放学后的作业。他母亲简单地说，"这是正常的。他所有的同学放学后都是这样。"

    这是事实，中国大企业的雇主会告诉你，一般来说，美国大学最好的学生一样的灵光，但创造性却远远超过中国的名牌大学的同行。重要的是 - 受教育的人数 - 左右国家的经济发展。简单地说，聪明，受过良好教育的人越多 - 努力工作的 - 经济（和公司）受益越多。这是风险资本家谭对中国的电动车业的评估。一个私人，开发电动车电池相当新的公司 - 比亚迪 - 聘用了惊人的 10000位工程师。

    中国，批评者会指出，还没有培养出（至少目前还没有）许多诺贝尔奖得主。但不要认为其具基本劳动人口的教育能力不是使其成为世界制造工业龙头的关键因素。这不是廉价的劳动力，而是智能劳动力。"无论是一线工人或工程师，我们发现我们的员工素质优于世界任何地方",上海通用汽车公司高层管理人员尼克赖利说。 "这一切都始于家庭注重教育的重要性。这给政府施加压力，以提供完善的制度。"

    而中国政府以有趣的方式对这些施加的压力作出回应。它坚持认为，小学数学和科学教师必需具有学科学位。（而在美国只有不到一半的八年级数学教师主修数学。）有"主任教师"计划对全国年轻教师提供指导。共同负责主持重新设计全国高中数学项目委员会的东中国上海师范大学数学名誉教授张奠宙说，近期的改革是在反映"强调实务".计算机科学课程，例如，已被纳入了高中学生的数学课程。而中国目前非常重视青年学生的英语和其他外国的教学。如果你怀疑中国不断地调整其教育系统的意愿对20年后的未来不会影响深远，有一个7岁的上海男孩将会很乐意的与您讨论。用英语。

    3. 老有所养

    很难想象美国和中国这两个社会对年老问题不同的处理。我可以保证这第一手资料。我的妻子岭是上海本地人，上个月我们第一次看望在美国疗养院我的父亲。她后来告诉我震惊的经验，"你知道，在中国，把父母放到疗养院是一大耻辱".在中国这习性已好几世纪：父母养育子女，然后孩子照顾老年的父母。例如，房地产开发商姜西鏖和夫人最近在上海买了一个新的更大的公寓，他们如此作的部分原因是因为他们知道，几年后，他的父母会搬来一起住。他们的父母会帮忙照顾江的女儿，当他们年老，江和夫人将照顾他们。随着中国逐渐发展对退休人员更好的资助和可靠的社会保障系统 - 已经开始 -经济的必要性会促使数代同堂的生活方式慢慢消失。但是，没有人认为，随着中国越来越富裕，文化规范也会显着改变。

    在一定程度上，当然，美国三代同堂未少其例。但自20世纪，美国特别成为移动和无根的社会。很难照顾三个时区外地父母的生活。

    但是纯基于经济上的需要，在家照顾老人将可能使在美国卷土重来。在老年人口将从2007年的3860万升至2030年的7150万。不过，最近马利兰州巴尔的摩县老龄部门退休的负责人阿诺德艾派尔说，"我们将不会有足够疗养院来收容他们".面对即将到来的危机的严重性，美国政府已经开始作出反应。两项新措施 - 护养院输导及钱跟人 - 增加家庭照顾老人补助，退伍军人卫生管理局刚也落实类似的举措。 "整个趋势将成为家庭护理，因为养老院费用太昂贵",艾派尔说。美国养老院的成本约为每人每年$8.5万美元。

    在中国，老年人护理费用，大多是由家庭承担。对于数以百万计的贫民，作为一种责任，这是一种负担。这会无疑地影响到中国需要改变节省开支的方式和模式（见节省更多，下面）.对于中产阶级和富有的中国人，这些费用是一个易于掌控的责任。尽管如此，仍然会影响到一般的经济决策。不过，也有利於平衡财政的困难：祖父母照顾幼儿，而父母亲工作。他们重视年轻一代对家庭和国家的价值，而采取了一个对社会合谐有益的文化连续性方式。对即将成为一个富裕的社会，中国对老年人的照顾体系，需要作出明显的调整。但在当美国数百万家庭面对是否将年迈的父母送入养老院的泠酷决定时，中华民族传统的社会思潮可能返馈成修正美国风气的良剂。

    4. 积谷防饥

    这已是老生常谈，即使午夜梦回也能背出。奥巴马总统无疑会在北京公开这观点：中国需要促进消费。他们需要中国人 - 信不信由你 - 变得更像美国人，为了全球的经济利益。（丑陋的美国人）

    而且这都是事实。但另一方面是，美国人需要增加储蓄。目前，美国家庭确实是正在做。2005年个人储蓄率降至零。去年的经济危机冲击，促使人们锁紧钱包。现在，已成滂沛成潮，也就是说，美国家庭已决定积谷防饥。储蓄率目前约为 4%,今年并一度高至 6%.

    在中国的家庭储蓄率超过20%.这与政策有直接原因。正如我们所看到的，打工仔不仅需照顾他们的子女，并且他们的年迈父母。还有就是，迄今为止，只有政府资助的卫生保健和养老金制度，增加工作个人的储蓄。但中国，像其他许多东亚国家，是一个具有数百年崇高的个人审慎理财的社会，即使政府设立好的社会安全系统，并成功地鼓励更多的消费支出，也不太可能改其根本。

    为什么美国需要学习节俭一点？因为健康储蓄率，包括政府和企业，是一个国家的长期财政健康的最可靠指标之一。高储蓄率领先，随着时间的推移，能增加投资，从而产生生产力，创新和就业增长。总之，储蓄是一个经济丰收的根本。

    美国政府因此需要同时策力。常年赤字，即使家庭节省更多，储蓄也是负的。彼得奥尔扎格，奥巴马的预算主任，最近称美国的预算赤字不可持续的 - 今年的1.4万亿美元 - 他是对的。截至目前，美国似乎仍无法像印第安那州州长丹尼尔斯所说的"成人交谈"来面对入不敷出的后果。这需要修正。此外，尽管胡锦涛和中国其他领导人并不倾向于对来访的总统说教，他可能会温柔地暗示，北京对美元的价值还是有点感冒 - 自3月已经下降了15%,在很大程度上是因为越来越担心美国的债务负担变得无法控制。

    这就是世界上最大债权国的效力：这样的暗示一旦泄漏，就足以造成国际经济动荡。（每一次北京官方的任何若有所思公开谈论寻求2.1万亿美元储备的替代美元，就使货币交易者们心惊胆颤。）如果美国人变得更像中国人 - 节省多花费少，假以时日 - 他们不用再担心这些。

    5. 高瞻远瞩

    外人在中国所感到的能量，奥巴马总统来时可能也有感，随处可见的蓬勃泱然并非只是来自於狂热。

    更可感到更大的发展正在蕴酿。政府极力的打造这些基础设施并非只为了创造工作。孩子们不睡觉的苦读是因为对未来乐观的憧憬。几年前，我采访了张欣，一个来自中国中部农业大省非常贫穷的年轻人。

    他的双亲是小麦农民，以田边小房为居。他毕业于清华大学 - 中国的麻省理工学院 - 在中国的思科 - 华为作软件工程师。张有一天告诉我，他的成功，已经永远改变了他的家人。他的子孙都不会"再种麦田了。他的孩子，他孩子的孩子。这种生活已远去。" （而且，在开始了他的新工作不久，包栝他的父母，他们都搬到香港北部的繁荣深圳。）

    将年轻人的故事以数百万计，你会意识到这个曾经非常落后的社会已经蜕变成极具前瞻的国家。一位在中国生活多年不想被公开（因为不想被灌上"熊猫拥抱者"- 亲中国的老绰号）聪明的美国人说："中国正努力的在成其大成。机动地向上，自觉，求是 - 处显成果，并自豪。"

    是这样的自豪。因为张了解，现在的辛勤工作正是在为几十年后更美好的未来筑基。如果美国人听来感到熟悉 - 孤芳自赏，就目前而言，处在近26年来最严重的萧条 - 此乃必然。