My sister visits China every year for several weeks as part of her job, and she travels all over the country. She is a conservative Republican with a traditional American disdain for communism, but she tells me that after beginning her annual visits, she had to adjust her assumptions about how Chinese people live and relate with their government.

She went into the experience believing Chinese people are persecuted and oppressed in general. She came out believing that while political dissidents and ethnic minorities are often persecuted and oppressed, the average person living in China is not.

Having become comfortable enough to make her way around several Chinese cities on her own, she says she believes the Chinese people live much more prosperous, comfortable lives than most Americans think.

She found that idea very challenging, and it changed some of her thinking about how the US should engage with China. She says she now believes constructive engagement should be our primary foreign policy.

That's pretty unusual for a Republican, but then, she didn't vote for Trump either time he ran, so she's an outlier anyway.

We need more people like her and you getting away from Evil Empire tropes and into more thoughtful analysis of the Middle Kingdom.