The establishment of the Biden administration provides an opportunity for the readjustment of Sino-US relations. However, opinions of experts in both countries are still fraught with concern as they look at the future of the relationship. It is not difficult to point out the problems that beset the relationship. The real challenge is to provide feasible solutions for the two sides to ease tensions and substantially change the current impasse.
In the US, members of Congress and strategists who support hawkish China policies remain active. The Biden administration's statements on China policy so far have clearly taken into account these voices, and the administration appears to be wary of being criticized as “weak." To change the confrontational China policies inherited from the Trump administration, Biden’s team needs not only an objective assessment of reality, but also strategic courage. As put by Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on US-China Relations, the Trump administration took needlessly confrontational positions that have set back American interests, and a reversal of these policies would “immediately benefit Americans and improve the tone of the bilateral relationship.”
When dealing with China, the US needs to find a more strategic perspective. This year marks the 50th anniversary of "Ping-Pong Diplomacy,” and also the 50th anniversary of Dr Kissinger's secret visit to China. At the beginning of the contemporary Sino-US relationship, the Nixon administration overcame the political difficulties that hindered the contact between China and the US for two decades, and saw from a long-term perspective the benefits of breaking the absolute isolation between the two countries to the global strategic balance. Today, China-US relations need such a vision again.
China and the US stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation. Cooperation is the only right choice for both sides. This is a basic lesson drawn from the development of Sino-US relations over the past four decades. The current reality still confirms this lesson. In the last four years, due to the extreme anti-China policies of the Trump administration, China-US relations have encountered difficulties that are unprecedented since the establishment of their diplomatic ties. This is detrimental for both countries to achieve their own domestic development goals.
Globally, there is recognition of the need for collaboration and co-operation between China and the US. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he wants to see a "reset" in this relationship. On climate change, pandemic response, macroeconomic policy coordination, and setting global standards for emerging technologies and industries, China and the US cannot fail to find some common ground. At a recent conference, Henry Paulson, the former US Treasury secretary who worked with China on the global financial crisis, stressed that the US and China must find a way to avoid conflict. He believes that the two countries should strengthen cooperation in dealing with the pandemic, and in particular should increase coordination in the global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
China-US relations have a systemic impact on the world, so both sides need to think more strategically in making their policies. Once the bilateral relationship is used as a tool of domestic political calculation, it will only add instability to the entire international order. At present, the US views its relations with China with a strong sense of anxiety. Deep down, this is not unrelated to America's anxiety about the direction of its own future. In the second decade of the 21st century, the US faces many systematic challenges that call for change. What is certain is that the future of America's competitiveness depends only on investing in its own capabilities, and on its ability to solve its own social problems. If the US simply focuses on a confrontational China policy, it will not find a solid basis to “build back stronger.”
On the Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve, President Xi Jinping and President Biden had an in-depth exchange of views on Sino-US relations by telephone, sending a positive message to both countries and the world at large. It is the common expectation of the international community for China and the US to escape their difficulties at an early date, find constructive ways to handle disputes, and build cooperation in more areas of common interest. If the two sides fail to do so, the potential losses will be huge.
(The author is a People's Daily commentator, who was based in Washington D.C., as an overseas correspondent for three years. The opinions expressed in the article reflect those of the author, and not necessarily those of the People's Daily.)