Professor Wang Dong of the School of International Relations of Peking University published the first article in English in the well-known international journal Global Asia
Source: Peking University News Network
WeChat platform editor: Zhou Yue
In December 2021, Wang Dong, Dean Of the School of International Relations of Peking University and Executive Director of the Research Base for People-to-People Exchanges between China and foreign countries, published the first article (leading) of the English issue entitled "Reluctant Rival: Beijing's Approach to US-China Competition" in the internationally renowned journal Global Asia article）。 The article elaborates on how China responds to the important practical issue of the Sino-US "strategic competition" relationship as defined by the United States. China is "not willing" to become a competitor of the United States, and that China does not want to provoke conflict with the United States or aspire to hegemony. However, if the United States presses forward step by step, then China will firmly defend its own interests and the right to development. For now, stabilizing Sino-US relations and preventing China and the United States from falling into a new Cold War remain the key objectives of China's policy toward the United States.
The article is the first in a series by Global Asia titled "Pulling Apart: What US-China Rivalry Means for the World" and the inaugural article of the latest issue of the journal. The authors of the panel also include the eminent international relations scholar Albert G. Milbank Chair Professor John Eikenbury. John Ikenberry), former director of the Oslo Peace Research Institute, Research Professor Stein Tønnesson, and senior experts and scholars from the Brookings Institution, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Atlantic Council, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Wellington Victoria University in New Zealand, Yonsei University and other well-known universities and think tanks.
The article began by pointing out that in the past few years, Sino-US relations have seriously deteriorated, and the engagement strategy that the United States has maintained for more than four decades has basically been abandoned. Judging from the performance of the last two US administrations, Trump began to launch a trade war against China after taking office, sanctioned Chinese high-tech companies such as Huawei and ZTE, sought a comprehensive decoupling of the Sino-US economy, attacked China on Xinjiang and the traceability of the new crown epidemic, and even publicly declared that China and the United States have entered a "new Cold War", seriously undermining the foundation of Sino-US relations. After Biden took office, he basically inherited Trump's idea of Sino-US strategic competition. But unlike Trump, Biden opted for a hybrid strategy of limited competition plus partial decoupling to avoid the conflict escalating into a new Cold War. Another approach of the Biden administration that differs from the Trump administration is that it can more effectively mobilize allies to try to balance China's development together.
The article points out that the "Old Engagement Consensus" of the United States toward China has an epistemological fallacy, that is, China should be "transformed" and "incorporated" into the "other" of the international system dominated by the United States, and implies that China will gradually become like the United States economically and even politically. This is tantamount to the ancient Chinese fable of "carving a boat and asking for a sword": this American expectation of China is the symbol carved by the Chu people on the side of the ship in the fable. No wonder the U.S. engagement strategy fails. Therefore, the United States should treat China with mutual respect and equality, rather than seeing China as the "other" that needs to be "transformed."
The article believes that the reason why China explicitly opposes the US use of strategic competition to define Sino-US relations is because it understands that the so-called "competition" of the United States is actually just a codename of hegemonic competition, and it has no interest in joining such a "hegemonic competition game" china. At the video conference of the heads of state of China and the United States held on November 16, 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping briefed Biden on China's development path and strategic intentions, clearly pointing out that the Chinese nation does not have the genes to invade others and dominate the king in its blood.
The article further analyzes China's strategies for coping with four aspects of strategic competition: geopolitics, geoeconomics, high technology, and ideology and values. First, in terms of geopolitics, the Biden administration continues to promote the "Indo-Pacific Strategy", focusing on enhancing the quadrilateral security cooperation between the United States, Japan, Australia and India, and strengthening the trilateral alliance between the United States, Britain and Australia (AUKUS). As the United States strengthens its strategic pressure on China, in order to hedge strategic risks, China has chosen to strengthen its strategic partnership with Russia, while easing border conflicts with India and deepening its comprehensive strategic partnership with ASEAN countries.
In the geoeconomic sphere, Biden has chosen to use "selective multilateralism" to weaken China's economic influence, such as urging the G7 to participate in the B3W (Build Back Better World) plan to counter the impact of China's Belt and Road Initiative. To this end, China actively promotes the "double cycle" strategy to cope with external shocks and risks. At the same time, China has also actively promoted the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and formally applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
In the high-tech field, the Biden administration has adopted a so-called "small courtyard high wall" strategy, trying to selectively decouple China in key technology fields such as artificial intelligence, 5G, quantum computing, and biological sciences, and "compete" with China in a "precision strike" manner. China, on the other hand, has vigorously promoted scientific and technological innovation and trained strategic scientists to solve the key technical problems of "stuck necks".
In terms of ideology and values, the United States is committed to the process of "othering" narrative of China through ideological rhetoric, which involves the process of dehumanization and demonization. The article also exposes and criticizes the racist tendencies implied by the strategic competitive orientation of the United States and the West under the rhetoric of values and rules, and points out that this implicit racism is wrapped in ideological discourse, and its purpose is to rationalize the maintenance of the West's dominance over the world. China strongly opposes these lies and prejudices. In the face of the Biden administration's value diplomacy offensive, China advocates the "common values of all mankind" of "peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom", and builds a counter-narrative based on this, thereby increasing the connection between China and the world at the conceptual level.
The article concludes that China is a "reluctant adversary." China does not want to provoke conflict with the United States, nor does it intend to enter the game of "competing" with the United States for global hegemony. China hopes that Sino-US relations can achieve stable development. But in the face of the Aggressive U.S. competitive strategy aimed at maintaining its hegemony, China has no choice but to resolutely defend its sovereignty, security, and right to its own development. At present, stabilizing Sino-US relations and preventing the formation of a Cold War situation are still important goals of China's policy toward the United States.
Further reading:
Global Asia is an internationally renowned policy publication that is a quarterly journal designed to provide an open, creative forum for world-renowned scholars, policymakers and business leaders to discuss the most important issues of peace, stability, prosperity and sustainability in Asia.
*Disclaimer: This article only represents the personal views of the author and does not represent the position of this official account
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