Cardinal test of the times

JIN DING/CHINA DAILY

Imperative that US and China find a way to get along affably

Editor's note: The world has undergone many changes and shocks in recent years. Enhanced dialogue between scholars from China and overseas is needed to build mutual understanding on many problems the world faces. For this purpose, the China Watch Institute of China Daily and the National Institute for Global Strategy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, jointly present this special column: The Global Strategy Dialogue, in which experts from China and abroad will offer insightful views, analysis and fresh perspectives on long-term strategic issues of global importance.

The world today is undergoing profound changes. The hegemonic, high-handed and bullying acts of using strength to intimidate the weak, taking from others by force and subterfuge, and playing zero-sum games are exerting grave harm. The deficits in peace, development, security and governance have increased. Human society is facing unprecedented challenges. The world is once again standing at a historical crossroad, and its future direction depends on the choices made by people of all countries.

But at the same time, the historical trend of peace, development and win-win cooperation is irresistible. The aspirations of people and the general trend of the times mean that the future of mankind will be ultimately bright.

Starting from the Donald Trump administration, US policy toward China has undergone the most extensive and profound changes since Richard Nixon's China visit in 1972. The United States regards China as its primary strategic competitor and deems that the engagement-based China policy pursued by successive US administrations since Nixon has been a failure. The US has engaged in its so-called coercive diplomacy, exerting extreme pressure and sabotaging the long-term stability in bilateral relations. The coordination and cooperation between the two sides has been weakened, with contradictions and conflicts becoming increasingly prominent.

Since Joe Biden took office as the president of the US, the US approach has been different from that of the Trump administration. Normal exchanges between China and the US are gradually being resumed, with people-to-people exchanges also showing signs of recovery. The White House has not rejected cooperation with Beijing over some important global challenges and regional hotspot issues. However, judging from its performance so far, the Biden administration has continued the logic of pursuing competition with China. There are also some new features in its policies:

First, the US view on China has darkened. At the beginning of his presidency, Biden described China as the "most serious competitor" to the US. In March 2021, the Interim National Security Strategic Guidance released by the administration stated that China "is the only competitor potentially capable of combining its economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to mount a sustained challenge to a stable and open international system". In October, the administration released its latest version of the US National Security Strategy report. The report focuses on competition with major powers, especially the so-called challenge from China. It believes that Russia's challenge is more direct and serious, but China is the only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it, adding that China presents the US with the "most consequential geopolitical challenge".

Second, the US has given greater priority to technological competition. The Biden administration has raised the competition in science and technology with China to the level of national security, and attempted to build "small yards with high fences" through the strategy of competition in science and technology. The Biden administration's National Security Strategy puts forward more detailed measures to maintain the US' leading position in science and technology by strengthening rules, coordinating with allies and attracting talents, while preventing China from acquiring or developing technologies. The US has also teamed up with its allies to build an ideology-based technology alliance that excludes China, to shape the rivalry between the so-called technological democracies and technological autocracies on a global scale, and to accelerate the establishment of various emerging technology rules in an attempt to develop two paralleled scientific and technological research systems.

The third is to put more emphasis on ideological means. Facing the growing domestic political chaos, the Biden administration has given higher priority to ideological threats from China in its China policy, and hyped up the narrative of "democracies against autocracies". Biden said that what the US needs to do is to prove that democracy works and can produce tangible results. To this end, the US has exerted ideological pressure on China, significantly increased the importance of human rights and democratic values in its China policy, and smeared China on issues related to Xinjiang and Hong Kong. It hosted the so-called Summit for Democracy and launched a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in an attempt to gain a competitive advantage over China by strengthening the so-called moral edge of liberal democracy.

Fourth, the strategic competition with China is more systematic. The Biden administration has carried forward the strategic framework of competition with China from the previous administration, but has given more priority to legislative norms. Shortly after Biden took office, the administration worked closely with the US Congress, trying to lead the competition with China through the making of a comprehensive and systematic act and to further legalize and institutionalize its China policy. Also, the Biden administration has paid more attention to magnifying the role of its system of allies. It has enhanced the role of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue among the US, Japan, India and Australia as a pillar in promoting its "Indo-Pacific strategy", pushed forward greater involvement from NATO and the European Union in "Indo-Pacific" affairs, established the trilateral AUKUS partnership of the US, the United Kingdom and Australia and promoted a so-called values-based alliance.

Compared with Trump's unilateralism and aggressiveness, the Biden administration's China strategy is a more systematic project. In short, the administration is trying to establish an alliance system headed by Washington that can claim the moral high ground to control the international discourse to demonize China politically, suppress China militarily, and attack China economically, so as to achieve its strategic purpose of "outcompeting China".

Despite claims from the Biden administration that it only competes with China and will not fight a Cold War with China, its Cold War mentality is obvious in the strategy of outcompeting China. However, the competition between China and the US is not, after all, a repetition of the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, as the competition is carried out in a world where China has neither exported its ideology nor engaged in an arms race, the building of alliances or bilateral confrontation, and there is economic interdependence between the two sides. A zero-sum game can and should be avoided between the two sides. In fact, Biden also recognizes that China and the US should cooperate on issues of major concern -- most urgently, the response to the pandemic, environmental protection, nuclear non-proliferation and financial stability. Doing so would also benefit the US and its allies. After all, both China and the US live in a world that is closely connected.

China-US relations have a bearing on the future of the world. Whether the two countries can handle their relations well is the question of the century that must be answered by both sides. One of the most important events in international relations over the past 50 years was the reopening and development of China-US relations, which has benefited peoples of the two countries and the whole world. The most important event in international relations in the coming 50 years will be for China and the US to find a way to get along. China does not believe in the inevitability of the so-called Thucydides Trap, and the nation has always opposed a zero-sum game mentality and the narrative that a strong country is bound to seek hegemony. Because of an error of judgment and a misreading of China's development by the US side, the US regards China as its main rival and the most severe long-term challenge. Such a perspective to view and define China-US relations misleads the two peoples and the international community. Competition between the two countries is inevitable. However, such competition should never be vicious. The two countries can compete fairly on governance. As we draw on the experience and lessons from the development of China-US relations, the two sides should adhere to three principles in the new era -- mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation.

JIN DING/CHINA DAILY

The author is the director of the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily.