About the author：

Dr. WANG Wen is the Executive Dean of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies (RDCY), the Deputy Dean and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Silk Road School, Renmin University of China. He is also the Secretary-General of the Green Finance Committee of China Society for Finance and Banking, a Researcher of the Financial Research Center of the Counsellor Office of the State Council, and the Standing Director of the World Socialist Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He has authored, co-authored, translated and contributed to more than 30 books, in which “The Think Tank Perspective of Wang Wen" series published by the People's Publishing House including: "A Promising China: Chinese Think Tank’s Voice in the World", "Think as a Tank: How China Influences the World", and "America's Anxiety: A Think Tank Scholar's Perspective on China’s Rise & U.S. Response" have been republished or reprinted many times. Dr. Wang Wen is an advocate of "Knowledge comes out of field investigation", who has visited nearly 100 countries (including the South Pole) and has met with more than 30 presidents or prime ministers in the world. Many of his research reports have ended up with the instructions or comments from the CPC and state leaders of China. As an advisory consultant for important ministries and commissions, he has won many honors such as the 2017 Reputable Scholars and the "Four Batches of Talent Development Project" talents, "40 Chinese Think Tank Experts in the 40 Years of Reform and Opening Up". In 2016, General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over the Symposium on Philosophy and Social Science, and Dr. Wang Wen was one of the ten speaking scholars.

Contents

Preface - Respect for Iran

1My introspections on the way to Teheran

2They Read Lolita, a “Surprise Package”

3Crazy & Ordered

4Ahmadinejad being Safer than Obama

5US Strength VS Iran Dignity

6Upcoming Iran War?

7Ripple of Israel and Iran

8Rooftops of Tehran

9China, Only Trustworthy Country?

10Another Three Perspectives into Iran

11Iran, a Mirror to Observe the World

12The Underestimated Iranian Civilization

Conclusion Iran, the Rise that has been Suppressed

Preface - Respect for Iran

I never expected Iran in my life before. Since my first visit in 2012, I have been to Iran for seven times altogether, making it the third country I visited the most after my home country China and the United States, the country with the strongest national strength in the world. Each of my visits to Iran brought me new thought. This book gathers the ten diary entries I wrote during my first visit in 2012, along with some thoughts afterwards and my research analysis after the think tank dialogue held in Tehran when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Iran in January 2016. Although these were written a few years ago, the content is not outdated, and it seems that it is still necessary to publish.

In the past few years, even though the world has changed significantly, Western countries' misunderstanding of Iran remains the same. In the international world of public opinions dominated by Western media, the mainstream view is still demonizing Iran and regarding it as an alternative existence that is different from other members of the international system. This is against the United Nations' rules such as diversity of world civilization and mutual respect between countries, even more contrary to the fact of Iran's own development.

This is an important reason why I have put together all these ten short articles into a book and published it in Chinese, English and Persian. The book will make its debut at the 2019 Tehran International Book Fair. I hope people can take another look at this country that has more than 2500 years of history and a civilization that never interrupts from the perspective of a Chinese scholar.

2019 is the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and the 40th anniversary of the Khomeini Revolution. In 1949, when Chairman Mao Zedong declared on Tiananmen, "The Chinese nation has stood up from now on", the world may not have imagined the brilliant prosperity China has accomplished today. If China can keep the current stable development momentum for decades, hundreds of years or longer, from the perspective of millennial national history, the significance of 1949 can rival the year of 221 BC. At that time, Qin unified China and established the first multi-ethnic country with early Han as the main population and a centralized system, which has lasted to the present. Similarly, the world does not have to underestimate the historical significance of the Khomeini Revolution in 1979 to Iran, if this country can continue with its development.

People's way of thinking tends to be too short-sighted. Just like when people see a child has a behavior that has never happened before, they cannot tell at all whether it is the sign of a talent or an occasional incident. The most correct way is to respect this child and try to keep observing and understanding it.

From the perspective of "long history", human beings were still only children when they entered modern civilization. "Iran" is also a child in human society who is regarded as alternative by others but actually normal. Respecting Iran is actually respecting ourselves. This is the rational judgment of an ordinary Chinese scholar, and it also conforms to the golden mean of the Confucian school in Chinese culture.