Managing director of Kissinger Associates Joshua Cooper Ramo speaks at the Turner Construction Student Forum, part of the Tate Lecture Series, Tuesday afternoon in the Hughes-Trigg ballroom. (SPENCER EGGERS/The Daily Campus)

Joshua Cooper Ramo, an expert on China and managing director of Kissinger Associates, shared his insights on the changes in China and what it means for the future of the U.S. in Tuesday night’s Tate Lecture.

Ramo divides his time between the U.S. and Beijing and considers himself to be not just fluent in the Mandarin language, but culturally fluent as well.

In his talk, Ramo emphasized that Earth is now an urban planet. He focused on the emergence of a post-modern life in China as well as the rest of the world.

“You’ve got to be constantly changing your life because the world is constantly changing,” Ramo said.

However, since stability is one of the most inherent desires of Chinese culture, Ramo expressed concern that China was not ready for this world of continuous change.

Ramo described the Chinese philosophy as “what matters most is not the individual, but what matters most is what goes on in the environment around you.”

The large audience positively received Ramo’s engaging lecture on the birth of China as a new global super power.

“I thought it was really informative,” SMU masters student Ann Abraham said. “I just read an article in Foreign Policy about U.S.- China relations, but I definitely learned more from this.”

U.S. –Chinese relations were also a major point of Ramo’s lecture.

“A failure to improve U.S. and China relations has every bit of potential to be as damaging as a war,” Ramo said. “We need to begin to adopt a cohesive policy that both protects our national interests and incorporates China into the international scene.”