From starry-eyed to sceptical: why young Chinese are turning away from the American dream

As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, it confronts a new world order dominated by its relationship with China. In this wide-ranging series, we examine the pressure points and possibilities in those ties, from hard tech to soft power. In this article, Jane Cai and Yuanyue Dang examine Chinese people’s changing attitudes towards the US.As the United States prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary this month – marking its journey from a revolutionary experiment to a global beacon of opportunity – few relationships have mattered more in modern history than the one between America and China.For generations, the US represented not just a distant power but an aspirational ideal: a land of innovation, individual freedom and boundless possibility that contrasted with China’s own turbulent path through dynastic decline, republican hopes, invasion, revolution and rebirth.