SHANGHAI, Sept. 14, 2001 — On Sept. 12, the English language Shanghai Daily greeted its readers with a two-inch headline: "U.S. ATTACKED". Sub-headline: "Terror planes demolish World Trade Center". A large color picture, three columns wide, shows the burning buildings against billowing clouds of smoke. A smaller picture, equally dramatic, shows crowds fleeing a terribly deadly cloud of smoke and debris threatening to engulf them. An accurate account of the tragedy cites the flights of the four airplanes hijacked by terrorists, two of which hit the twin towers of the Center, a third the Pentagon, while a fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

The front page is entirely filled with news of the disaster. In addition to the story cited above, there are two others: one discusses the crash into the Pentagon and the other quotes world leaders who, like most of the world, reacted with horror and disbelief. "Among the leaders are China's President, Jiang Zemin, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Yasser Arafat."

Television coverage in hotels and elsewhere has been more extensive, I imagine, than in the U.S. This is because of the large number of foreigners here. From the day of the attack onwards the news was carried on channels like CNN, BBC and others, in languages including Chinese, English, German, French, Spanish and Japanese. While many of these programs reproduced films shown on other channels, there was much original material. The most effective and detailed films of the collapse of the WTC towers were initially on French TV. Extensive coverage has continued for more than two days on television and in the newspapers.

Within twenty minutes of its occurrence, while in Nanjing, I learned of the event from television and soon thereafter I received telephone calls of condolence from several of my current and former students, four in Nanjing and one in Shenzhen. I was then struck by the realization that a good friend and former student, Li Lei, had recently accepted a position at the WTC. I immediately dialed his home in New Jersey and, to my relief, he answered the telephone. He said he had left work early and, from a distance of one mile, had witnessed the collapse of the towers and subsequently learned of the total destruction of his own office.

The Chinese, by and large, like Americans and admire the U.S. At present, 50,000 Chinese are studying in America and, I'd guess, several times that number hope to do so. Many have become permanent residents or citizens. Beijing has offered special salaries and perks to entice Chinese back to the motherland. All of this, of course, helps to explain the sympathy China feels for the grief suffered by America.

Like other foreigners, I am now stranded in China since most airports in the U.S. are closed to overseas flights. I have telephoned my carrier repeatedly but no one can say when flights will resume. Because I may run out of three medications I take daily, I visited the airline with a written statement of my difficulties and the clerk thought I might get aboard the first flight departing since that flight was the first canceled.

China, like the rest of the world, is suffering considerable shock. People share the view that the terrorists must be caught and punished. But few, it seems, ask questions like, Why are there people in several nations who hate the U.S? Is there anything Americans could do to counter their hatred and thereby, its consequences?