Woody: So in your experiences on the ground, interacting with Chinese people, how did you come to understand the way they saw their status in the world? Do they see themselves as this rising country that was in a position to project power or was it another sentiment?
Guajardo: So I always say that I was there during an inflection point in China, and to be very blunt, I say I was there at the point where China became arrogant. And China can be very arrogant in its dealings with foreign countries.
So when I first arrived in 2007 — I'll give you an example. It's a silly example, but it's a indicative nonetheless — and I'd do media interviews, and every media interview would at some point have a question, "What can China learn from Mexico?" Well, of course you don't want to be presumptuous, or you would say, like, "No, nothing. We are not here to spread anything." But there was always that, "What can China learn from the world."
After 2008, with the world financial crisis, and in particular 2009, it started being, "What can Mexico learn from China?" So they started thinking that their model was in and of itself superior, their model of government, of economy, whatever it may be, and with that came a certain arrogance, and I always say that China spends so much time trying to have the world understand it and so little time trying to understand the world.
And jokingly, and I insist it was jokingly, but I would always say that China expected to have two ambassadors: A Chinese ambassador in Mexico to explain to the Mexicans how China works, and a Mexican ambassador in China to explain to the Mexicans how China works, and I would say, "So who explains to the Chinese how Mexico works?" And that applies most every other country.
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