BEIJING - It's strange to view America from afar. It challenges my assumptions about what I think I know about the world. One realizes just how indoctrinated people can become to their country's particular view of the world.

For example, space exploration: Chinese folks are still very excited about it.

Last October, when the Shenzhou 6 spaceship launched into orbit, people here, old and young, were ecstatic. The jubilation was impossible to ignore. Everyone talked about it and how it was an important milestone toward the impending Chinese moonshot. The national pride was palpable.

Of course, I felt national pride, too, since the Shenzhou program is the Chinese equivalent of NASA's now-ancient Gemini program. America did what China's doing in space, back when my mother was a toddler in the early 1960s.

What's more, China is doing it with borrowed technology, using an updated model of the old Russian Soyuz spacecraft that they licensed out from the U.S.-subsidized Russian space program.

But I'd never spoil the fun for them. It's nice to be around people who are still excited about space.

This is in stark contrast to America, where people now take successful manned spaceflight for granted, saying it's either a gross misallocation of taxpayer money, or view it as a distraction from earthly troubles. I've heard people back home even express irritation that Americans haven't made it to Mars yet. All these attitudes would completely confound a Chinese person.

By the way, the Chinese still hedge their bets. Just like the Russians before them, they still don't allow live news coverage of the landing, just in case disaster strikes.

Another eye-opener is military history. I'm a history buff, so I pay attention to all things historical with keen interest. So, upon visiting the Chinese military museum, I was interested to see the Chinese perspective. The Korean War is called "The War to Aid Korea and Resist American Aggression." They don't have snappy names for their wars like we do. Say the "Gulf" and Americans know exactly which war you're talking about. Say "Afghanistan" and no one makes a mistake. The Chinese museum makes an interesting case for how the "cowardly Americans" and their U.N. thugs showed up unexpectedly and blew things up, Darth Vader-style in 1950. And how young Chinese boys were torn away from the bosoms of their mothers to repel the imperialistic villains, to hand Kim Il Sung (Kim Jong Il's daddy) his country back in one, slightly smaller piece.

Man, these folks need PBS - stat.

But it also enlightens me as to China's apparent inferiority complex and heavy-handedness. This is a country whose older generation is still fighting the Cold War, at least mentally. The oldest members of the population were born to a nation of civil war, strife, and hunger. Then they endured a brutal Japanese invasion.

Back home, as a New Mexico Military Institute cadet, I can remember weeping when I listened to the accounts of the Japanese torture and execution against our gallant POWs of the New Mexico National Guard during the Bataan Death March in the Philippines. As a Marine, I learned how the Japanese Imperial Army executed hundreds of vanquished U.S. civilian contractors and soldiers at Wake Island. I can only imagine the horrors endured by the Chinese at the hands of these same people.

Not only the soldiers, but Chinese civilians, including the elderly, women and children were at their mercy.

Given the context of China's seeming bad luck with foreign invasions, especially in the past 150 years, it makes it easier to understand why Chairman Mao could see General MacArthur's decisive landing at Inchon as a prelude to another invasion. Many don't recognize this, but China was even invaded by Vietnam in 1979. This is a country that has fought a war of some kind with every single neighbor in past century.

Now, some see the opening of their markets as another attempted foreign campaign to subjugate the on Chinese on their sovereign soil. They are chagrin to allow seemingly harmless direct foreign investment and foreign ownership of Chinese industries to happen unregulated. They are still wary of their bad experience with foreigners showing up at the doorstep for seemingly innocuous reasons.

Watching China open its doors to foreigners is like watching Charlie Brown decide if he should try to kick the football again while the west holds it for him.