Warped lens distorts healthy Sino-US relations

• Source: Global Times
• [21:47 August 16 2010]
• Comments

Yang Jiemian, Yuan Peng, and Zhao Kejin from the left to the right.

Editor's Note:

Sino-US relations are among both the most important and the most tangled in the world. Are the conflicts and contradictions between the two countries structural or tactical? Has the way they see each other changed, or are both nations still stuck in the past? People's Daily (PD) interviewed Yang Jiemian (Yang), president of the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, Yuan Peng (Yuan), director of the Institute for American Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, and Zhao Kejin (Zhao), deputy director of the Center for US-China Relations at Tsinghua University, on these questions.

PD: What do you think of the conflicts and contradictions between China and the US?

Yuan: The situation in the past 30 years indicates that, "fluctuations, twists and turns" have been close to becoming a basic law of Sino-US relations. This is determined by the two countries' natures.

China and the US have different civilizations, social systems and structural contradictions, and the two countries are at different stages of development. The only way to carry the relations between such two countries to a new stage is to face the conflicts and contradictions and then gradually resolve them.

Moreover, the international society often links the game between the two countries with the rise and fall of great powers and a new world order, exaggerating the seriousness and danger of Sino-US competition.

In addition, media hype and the strategic miscalculations caused by the lack of effective communication have also aggravated the problem. It's very dangerous.

Zhao: The Sino-US conflicts are not irreconcilable structural conflicts, but nonstructural ones that any two countries would certainly encounter in the process of developing closer relations. Specifically, there are three kinds of conflict.

First, the conflicts stemming from regular interaction. These conflicts emerged in the process of interactions, such as trade conflicts and exchange rate disputes. With the development of Sino-US relations, these kinds of conflicts will be regular.

Second, the conflicts over rights. Such conflicts, such as the North Korea nuclear issue, Iran nuclear issue, the regional cooperation in East Asia and climate change, stem from different expectations of the rights of international participation and the distribution of rights.

Due to the limits of national strengths and capacities, China and the US have different expectations of the distribution of international rights and responsibilities, thus conflicts and contradictions are inevitable.

Third, clashes of thinking. This kind of conflicts come from ideological and value divergences, like the issue of Internet freedom. In the context of economic globalization, such conflicts are not a zero-sum game, but involve some common interests. These conflicts could be eliminated by active communication and consultations.

PD: What opportunities and challenges will China's rise bring to the US?

Zhao: China's rise could bring the US more opportunities than challenges.

China is rising against the background of globalization, and it's integrating into the US-led international system and becoming an important force in maintaining global peace and stability.

Although China will not ally with the US, it could still be the US partner in global affairs.

Even the most conservative US strategists admitted that China and the US, both having benefitted greatly from globalization, have a huge amount of mutual interests in dealing with global challenges.

Meanwhile, the two countries are at different development stages, and their economic structures, advantages and resources could greatly complement each other. Cooperation is advantageous for both, while conflict harms everyone.

China's unique history, tradition and national situation determined that China would not copy the US development model. China's rise will certainly impact US international influence. It's possible that there will be more and more countries that follow China's experience and doubt the US model, which the US is unhappy about.

Yuan: China's rise will bring the US three opportunities. First, China's rise will bring new meaning to globalization, create more balanced flow of capital, markets, talent and resources, and further revitalize the US economy, finance and market.

Second, a more developed China will be more able to cooperate with the US on various global and regional issues such as anti-terrorism and financial crises, creating the conditions for shaping new international political and econom-ic orders in the 21st century.

Third, China's rise will make the world more diversified. This will help the US be more active to face a diversified world and abandon the monopoly mentality, and help create a multipolar world.

Of course, China's rise will also cause practical and psychological challenges. First, China's population is over 1.3 billion, and the rapid rise of the most populous nation will bring economic challenges.

Second, the rapid rise of the world's only large socialist nation will exert pressures on the US in terms of social system and development model, and thus form political challenges. Some of these challenges are real, but some are imaginary.