2012年末，刚上任不久的习近平主席就提出了“中国梦”，并在今年习奥会时说中国梦“与包括美国梦在内的世界各国人民的美好梦想相通”，作为我们的老朋友，您理解的“中国梦”应当是什么？
我不会妄自说“中国梦”是什么，但是我想，“中国梦”中包含了一些基础元素，当然我也认为这些基础元素对美国来说更重要。中国梦是实现民族文化的生机勃勃，实现社会的独立，可以在很大程度上做自己的决定，但在和其他社会进行比较和沟通时，还能保持不傲慢自大并开放的态度。这些都是中国梦中包含的各式元素，这些合理的、有意义的元素指引了中国梦的方向，这个方向，需要用恰当的词和路径去表达。比如，当年富兰克林·罗斯福就试图为美国的政治方向找到一个新词，虽然后来违背了，但“经济民主”，这个你现在再听不到了的词，在当时非常重要。
我觉得在中国梦也关乎找到合适的词语、语言或方式以表达中国的希望和抱负，不是一个蓝图，而是一个方向，一种精神，从个人价值和社会文化价值两方面衡量做什么是对文化和社会有价值的、有意义的。
[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.
