Only if foreigners visit the country can they see the real China

Foreign tourists walk around near the Palace Museum in the Chinese capital, Beijing in May, 2024. When people are worried about paying the bills and making ends meet, they are unlikely to plan foreign tours even if countries such as China offer preferential policies and a wonderful traveling experience. While international tourism is yet to fully recover, China's domestic tourist market recovered to a large extent last year, with 490 million trips made across the country with consumption of 4.9 trillion yuan. As a journalist, I have seen many Western media outlets changing, from trying to be objective or balanced in reporting on China to pointing the finger at the country for whatever it does, because such reports invoke laughter due to their absurdity. More importantly, they can talk with the Chinese people — many Chinese people below 40 years can communicate in English — on the streets, in restaurants, at tourist sites and other public places — to know why more than 90 percent of them are satisfied with the Chinese government, how China has managed to eradicate absolute poverty and why the accusation of the country using "forced labor" in Xinjiang is nonsense.