US no longer 'confident, optimistic and open'

Cui Tiankai, China's ambassador to the US, is puzzled by the change in a country where he has lived and worked for many years. "Is the America I used to know - an open, confident, optimistic America - still there?" he said in a speech at Harvard University's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies on April 17.

What perplexes Cui also seems to be confounding many others, especially those who plan to visit the US, or study or do business there.

As China's longest-serving ambassador to the US, where he was once a student and UN employee, Cui is puzzled by Washington's anti-globalization moves - from pulling out of global agreements such as the Paris climate pact to imposing steep tariffs on imports - which many deem as the US administration's disdain for multilateralism.