Observer: World expects stable, predictable China-US relations
By Yang Yang
People's Daily app
1612513814000

As one of the world's most important bilateral relationships, China-US relations have a direct bearing on the well-being of the two peoples as well as peace and prosperity of the world. When the new US administration took office last month, the world was watching closely as to where this relationship was heading.

With a Cold War mindset, the previous US government viewed China as an adversary and adopted misguided policies, plunging the relationship into its most difficult time since the establishment of diplomatic ties and causing great uncertainty to the global economy and international relations.

The arrival of a new administration in the US provides an opportunity to reset the tone of interactions. Yet there are still worries of building blocks to counter one or the other. Some state leaders have already expressed fears and unwillingness to have to pick sides between the world’s biggest economies.

“I would very much wish to avoid the building of blocs," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at the virtual Davos World Economic Forum on January 26. She rejected calls for Europe to pick sides between the US and China.

She said: "I don’t think it would do justice to many societies if we were to say this is the United States and over there is China and we are grouping around either the one or the other. This is not my understanding of how things ought to be.”

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also stood out to reject a potential scenario where China and the US fall into destructive confrontation, and smaller countries like Singapore have to choose sides.

“We all want to work together with the US, we all want to work together with other vibrant economies, we would like to cooperate within the region,” Lee said at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in November last year. “I think not very many countries would like to join a coalition against those who have been excluded, chief of whom will be China.”

Back in the US, even in times of great difficulty for bilateral relations, voices that called for exchanges and expectations for cooperation have never been absent.

Ezra Vogel, the renowned American scholar on China, was drafting a statement to improve US-China relations, which was still unfinished at the time of his death late last year.

The draft statement, recently made public, conveys some convictions that many share with the late scholar: that war between the US and China will do great harm to both countries; that indiscriminate decoupling is not the solution to the problems in the relationship; that cooperation is essential if we hope to address the many pressing global issues such as climate change and global health, and that the continued exchange of legitimate scholars, journalists, and many others is essential to a healthy relationship.

History has shown that cooperation rather than confrontation could bring benefits to the people in the two countries and beyond. Both countries have benefited greatly from globalization and joined hands to safeguard free trade. They also cooperated to counter terrorism in 2001, worked together to deal with the 2008 global financial crisis, fought the Ebola virus, and jointly promoted the signing of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

“It is a task for both China and the United States to restore the relationship to a predictable and constructive track of development, and to build a model of interaction between the two major countries that focuses on peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation,” said senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi Tuesday in an online conversation with board members of the National Committee on US-China Relations.

To this end, China is prepared to work with the US to move the relationship forward along the track of no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation.

For Washington, first and foremost, it needs to abandon the outdated mentality of zero-sum, major-power rivalry and work with China to keep the relationship on the right track.

It is worth mentioning that some hardliners in Washington are still trying to create a Cold War atmosphere between China and the US, maliciously depicting China’s rise as a challenge to US leadership of global order and crying wolf that Beijing ultimately seeks a global order that is more compatible with Chinese interests and values.

The truth is, as Beijing has stated on various occasions, China never meddles in the internal affairs of the United States; it never exports its development model or seeks ideological confrontation; and it has no intention to challenge or replace the US’ position in the world.

As a defender and promoter of multilateralism, China upholds the values of peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom shared by all mankind and calls for building a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind.

In his first visit to the State Department since taking office, US President Joe Biden Thursday said his administration will work with Beijing when “it is in America's interest to do so”.

With great power there must also come great responsibility. Perhaps, it is time for the US to answer the expectations of countries in the global community as well.