By Zhong Sheng
Since the meeting between leaders of China and the United States in Bali, representatives of the two parties’ diplomatic security teams and the financial, economic and trade teams have made several communications to follow up on the major issues discussed by the two heads of state and implement the consensus reached by them. The international community generally hopes that China and the US will work together to find the right way to establish good state-to-state relations, add stability to the volatile and intertwined world, and play a major role in promoting the recovery of the global economy after COVID-19, coping with climate change, and resolving regional hot issues.
In recent years, the US diplomatic policy towards China has always been based on the belief that China is a so-called strategic competitor, which has led to the ever-lasting dilemma of China-US relations and also brought destabilizing factors to world peace and development. Stephen Roach, a senior researcher at Yale University, recently warned that if the dispute between the US and China keeps going, the ability of both sides to solve major global problems will be severely constrained. The US should understand that there is competition in the world all along, but the competition should be based on mutual learning and trying to outdo each other to make common progress, rather than vie to have a side lose and die. In all, it’s not a wise choice to engage in blind anti-China operations.
Mutual respect has been an important experience accumulated in the China-US exchanges, and also a basic prerequisite for the return of bilateral relations to the right track. China and the US are two major powers with different histories, cultures, social systems and development paths. There are differences between the two countries from the past to the present, and the future, but they should not be an obstacle to the development of China-US relations. One of the most important things for the two countries to get along with each other is to recognize and respect the differences, instead of trying to change or even subvert the other's system. The US has to understand the point with accuracy, avoid allowing ideological prejudice to coerce its policy towards China, and practically implement its commitment to "respecting China's system and not seeking to change it" with concrete actions, rather than talk the talk but not walk the walk.
No conflict, no confrontation, and peaceful coexistence is a line that both China and the US must hold, which are the most basic common interests of the two countries. China unswervingly pursues an independent foreign policy of peace and always adheres to the foreign policy goals of upholding world peace and promoting common development. Some people in the US haven’t got rid of the Cold War mentality, and regard China as an imaginary enemy with Chinese development. This has turned out to be a major obstacle to the peaceful coexistence between the two major powers, and the US must overcome it as soon as possible. Adherence to the basic norms of international relations and the three China-US joint communiqués is the key to controlling and preventing conflicts and differences between the two parties, and also serves as the most important protection and security net for the China-US relations. Once China and the US come into conflict or confrontation, whether it is a cold war, a hot war, a trade war, or a science and technology war, the interests of both sides and other countries across the world are ultimately doomed to be impaired.
The Taiwan question is at the very core of China's core interests, the bedrock of the political foundation of China-U.S. relations, and the first red line that must not be crossed in China-U.S. relations. The US is supposed to abandon the obsessiveness to contain China; instead, it should try to implement its commitment to not seek a new Cold War, not seek to revitalize alliances against China, not support "Taiwan independence," not support "two Chinas" or "one China, one Taiwan," and has no intention to have a conflict with China.
Win-win cooperation has been the true narrative of China-US relations over the past half a century and is also the common goal that both sides should continue to strive to achieve. In addressing various global challenges, China-US cooperation is the common expectation of the international community. Henry Paulson, former US Treasury Secretary, recently pointed out in an article on US Foreign Affairs that the world would be a very dangerous and less prosperous place if the US and China couldn’t maintain stable bilateral relations and cooperate on issues of common interest.
It is the common expectation of the people of the two countries and the people of all other countries in the world that China and the US will find the right way to establish good state-to-state relations. The two sides should, in the spirit of being responsible for history, the world and the people, establish a tone of dialogue rather than confrontation, mutual benefits rather than a zero-sum game in communications, and take practical actions to push the China-US relations back to the track of healthy and stable development, so as to benefit both countries and the world.
