2014 Maine Governor's race: on Foreign Policy

Eliot Cutler: China's future is like America in 1890s: booming and growing

A: Yes! I'm working with the Bangor Chinese School and the University of Maine at Farmington. They both want to bring to Maine a Confucius Institute, which is a Chinese-sponsored program that promotes language and culture.

Q: And are there lessons to take away from China as well?

A: Yes. It's a resource-constrained country of 1.3 billion people. Much of China is desert, and desertification is a big, growing problem. Beijing is a city of 18 million people, and it's going to go dry. But there's palpable confidence and excitement. Have you ever wished you had a time machine and could experience living in the US in the 1890s or 1920, when we were booming and growing? Here's an opportunity to see what it must have been like. Having a sense of that again and seeing how much difference that can make in people's lives, and in a country's life, is an important lesson to bring home.