2012年末，剛上任不久的習近平主席就提出了“中國夢”，並在今年習奧會時説中國夢“與包括美國夢在內的世界各國人民的美好夢想相通”，作為我們的老朋友，您理解的“中國夢”應當是什麼？
我不會妄自説“中國夢”是什麼，但是我想，“中國夢”中包含了一些基礎元素，當然我也認為這些基礎元素對美國來説更重要。中國夢是實現民族文化的生機勃勃，實現社會的獨立，可以在很大程度上做自己的決定，但在和其他社會進行比較和溝通時，還能保持不傲慢自大並開放的態度。這些都是中國夢中包含的各式元素，這些合理的、有意義的元素指引了中國夢的方向，這個方向，需要用恰當的詞和路徑去表達。比如，當年富蘭克林·羅斯福就試圖為美國的政治方向找到一個新詞，雖然後來違背了，但“經濟民主”，這個你現在再聽不到了的詞，在當時非常重要。
我覺得在中國夢也關乎找到合適的詞語、語言或方式以表達中國的希望和抱負，不是一個藍圖，而是一個方向，一種精神，從個人價值和社會文化價值兩方面衡量做什麼是對文化和社會有價值的、有意義的。
[Transcript]
Well, I wouldn’t presume to say what the Chinese dream is, but I think, it’s, you know from what I see, there are elements that are there. A Chinese dream is part of what the, if you take what I said about what I think is more important about America, it is a vibrant national culture, it’s an independent society, it's a society that’s making to the extent that it can its own decisions, but in the process it’s comparing itself to other societies, and is linked up to them in a non-arrogant and open way, and there are various elements to what the dream would be within that context, but that’s a context that provides something very valid and meaningful for a direction to go, and it’s partly about finding the right words and ways to say it, in another words, when Franklin Roosevelt was president, he tried to find a new vocabulary for American politics, to some extent, and then partly it was turned against, economic democracy, not the term you hear in the US any more, but very prominent.
And part of what I think the Chinese dream is going to involve is finding the kind of words, language, ways of expressing a hope and aspiration, it’s not a blueprint, it’s not saying this is what it is, but it is a direction, it’s a spirit, and within that, a sense of what’s valuable and meaningful for a culture and a society in a broader sense for both, from individual worth to social and cultural worth.
