Source: China News Network WeChat public account
For some time now, the United States has repeatedly proposed the so-called "starting from the position of strength" to deal with China. Is this approach feasible? What kind of posture should China and the United States take to conduct dialogue?
China News Service's "East-West: China-US Dialogue" invited Wang Huiyao, chairman of the Globalization Think Tank (CCG), to have a dialogue with Former US Ambassador to China Stapleton Roy. The veteran U.S. diplomat, who was born in Nanjing and spent his youth in Chengdu, Shanghai and elsewhere, believes that the United States must stop thinking about problems from the position of hegemony. The United States and China should shoulder their responsibilities as great powers and not allow differences in political systems to hinder cooperation.
Infographic: Rui Xiaojian. Photo by Deng Min, a reporter from China News Service
The transcript of the dialogue is reproduced as follows:
Wang Huiyao: You are an experienced diplomat who has known China since you were a teenager and has been following China-US relations for many years. What are your views on the past, present, and future of the U.S.-China relationship?
Rui Xiaojian: For most of the past 50 years, the United States believed that China's growing wealth and power would not threaten important U.S. interests, and that differences between the two sides could be handled through diplomacy and consultation. That is no longer the case.
To understand what's going on, it's important to recognize that both the United States and China are in the midst of a fundamental shift that will affect their respective world positions. The United States is struggling to adapt to the international situation in which it is no longer the sole superpower. This is not because U.S. power has declined, but because other countries have risen to great power status, with China bearing the brunt and foremost example. A new multipolar world is emerging. It is not surprising that the United States is unwilling to relinquish its dominance since the end of the Cold War and to accept the adjustments necessary to establish a new equilibrium. At the same time, over the past period of time, the social and political polarization of the United States has damaged its international image, and reliability is an important criterion for judging the image of a great power. In turn, China regained its wealth and military might as a great power in a very short period of time. This will change the psychology of the Chinese people, and it will also change China's behavior patterns and make it more confident. These are two key backdrops for the sharp decline in the U.S.-China bilateral relationship to its half-century low.
Fortunately, despite some superficial similarities, the Biden administration is fundamentally different from its predecessors. The Biden administration is acting cautiously to bridge internal divisions and adopt sustainable policies. Of particular importance to the U.S.-China relationship is that the U.S. government has reiterated its commitment to the "one-China" principle while also seeking a model for regular consultations between Beijing and Washington.
In fact, the United States' hardline attitude toward China is not in line with the interests of its East Asian allies, who do not want to see the region divided into two camps, China and the United States. In other words, if the United States tries to work with its East Asian allies, it will find that they do not support a tough stance on China, which I think will have a profound impact on U.S. policy.
Infographic: The Chinese flag and the American flag. Image source: People's Vision
Wang Huiyao: We hope to explore how to ease the friction between China and the United States through dialogue, and one of the very concerned issues is the traceability of the virus. What are your thoughts on this?
Rui Xiaojian: On this issue, we should especially cooperate rather than fight with each other. I think it's important to trace the source of the virus, and we have our own views on how to trace the virus. But the basic point is that the pandemic threatens every country in the world, and if the two major countries in the world can't work together to deal with the common threat, then something will happen that is not good for both of us. We need to think carefully about what is preventing us from cooperating on this important issue.
Wang Huiyao: The United States often says, "China has not joined us and has not become one of us." However, China has its own unique system, which also has certain advantages in fighting the epidemic and does not have to be consistent with the United States. From the perspective of a former U.S. ambassador to China and a China ambassador, how do you see the future of China and the United States?
Rui Xiaojian: If China or the United States aims to achieve dominance, it is impossible to achieve a new balance, because it will be difficult for the other side to accept. There must be a balance of power in East Asia, or we will continue to compete strategically with each other. That is one reason why I think it is absolutely wrong to regard strategic competition as the focus, because strategic competition is always concentrated in the military field, which will eventually produce an endless arms race and resources will be forced from economic development to military development. I think the United States must stop thinking about it from a hegemonic position now, and the Biden administration is wrong to introduce the concept of "dealing with China from the position of strength." Anyone understands that China will never negotiate with the United States on this basis.
National interests must be defined without ruling out the possibility of peaceful coexistence, so I think there is tremendous room for development in Sino-US relations. For China and the United States, both sides should not look at the world solely in terms of domestic drivers. They must look at the world's external environment in an objective way and then formulate a foreign policy commensurate with the international environment in which they operate, while ensuring domestic support. The U.S. has not yet done that. For example, all countries in the East Asian region trade more with China than with the United States. Obviously, if we ask Asian countries to choose between China and the United States, they will not be willing because they have very important interests with China. We must understand that our approach to China's foreign policy and the way we talk about China must not simply require countries to choose between China and the United States, which is a wrong way of formulating foreign policy.
In July 1971, Premier Zhou Enlai met with U.S. President's National Security Adviser Kissinger, who was secretly visiting China. Xinhua News Agency (file photo)
Wang Huiyao: When Qin Gang, China's new ambassador to the United States, arrived in the United States and delivered a speech, he mentioned that 50 years ago, Dr. Kissinger paid a secret visit to China and knocked on China's door. Once the door to Sino-US relations has been opened, it will not be closed. What do you think about that?
Rui Xiaojian: I think Dr. Kissinger's visit to Beijing 50 years ago is very memorable. Because it shows that when national interests can be met through cooperation, differences in political and social systems cannot stop such cooperation. Institutional differences have become a big issue for the United States when considering China. To some extent this does affect cooperation, but it should not be prevented when it is in the national interest.
There are forces in the United States that want to prevent cooperation with China out of different considerations of the political system. But we need to think that Nixon and Kissinger restored relations with China at a time when the "Cultural Revolution" was not over and the political systems between the two countries were very different. If the world today has any demands on the responsibilities of the United States and China as great powers, we can conclude from Kissinger's visit to China that the responsibility of the two countries is the need for cooperation. We should not allow differences in the political system to hinder such cooperation. So I think it was a very important visit. Historically, it has offered the possibility of creating enormous common benefits for U.S.-China cooperation. These common interests, in my opinion, need to continue to be maintained and promoted.
Reporter: Wang Enbo Zeng Nai