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Past experience demonstrates that a partnership between China and the US is beneficial to both nations, while confrontation is in no one's interests.
China and the US cooperated with each other during both world wars, defeating the Axis powers. But when the Cold War began, they belonged to two different blocs. The consequences of conflict in Korea and Vietnam left the US in an unfavorable position in the global strategic balance.
Washington realized the way out of this strategic puzzle lay in cooperation with Beijing, which resulted in Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger visiting China and the establishment of the classic triangle of diplomacy. The relationship between the US and the Soviet Union gradually improved.
China also benefited from improving its ties with the US. The most important result was the comprehensive opening of China's diplomacy, which created a favorable international environment for China's reform and opening-up, and helped the nation participate multilaterally in economic globalization.
The rapid growth of China's economy has brought opportunities and benefits to many countries, in particular the US, as the US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has stressed in his speeches and testimony in the US Congress. A significant proportion of China's foreign currency reserve was used to purchase US bonds, thereby supporting the prosperity of the US property market. The huge sum of capital that flowed in from China contributed to the soft-landing of the US economy in 2000 when it was in recession. Cheap Chinese commodities have helped the US maintain a favorable economic environment with low inflation.
The 15-year period following the Cold War has demonstrated that if China and the US cooperate with each other, they not only find significant common interests at the strategic level but also realize conditions of mutual benefit in respective economic development.
China's progress has aroused some fear in the world community. Some countries led by the US are concerned about how China will use its ever-increasing strength. Though there are differing attitudes towards China in the US, it is not Washington's established policy to regard China as a foe.
First, the US does not seek to spread radical anti-China ideology. It still regards encouraging China's economic development through market reform and prompting the country to integrate with the international system as a symbol of the success it has achieved in its diplomacy towards China.
Second, the US is optimistic about China's developmental trends, though it thinks the nation has not yet realized "democracy" as the US expects.
Third, though the US has not recognized China's market economy status and expressed its dissatisfaction with its foreign exchange system, intellectual property rights protection and trade imbalance, it takes a positive attitude towards the opening of China's economy, China's implementation of its promises made when joining the World Trade Organization, China's observance of international economic and trade rules as well as China's role in the regional and world economy.
Fourth, the US is faced with a series of global challenges. If China is pushed to one side, these challenges will become even more difficult to tackle.
Fifth, the US still adheres to the one-China policy and is opposed to Taiwan's "unilateral change of the status quo at the Taiwan Straits." So long as this political basis is maintained, there will be grounds for the Sino-US partnership.
Sixth, pragmatism is prevailing in Washington's China policy. The US seems to have decided that adopting a containment and encirclement policy towards such a big country would be inappropriate.
But it cannot be denied that Washington's attitude toward China's military modernization and the Taiwan question, and the eye-catching development of US-Indian ties, indicate the US is attempting to counterbalance China's rise. Nevertheless, it is clear the common desire of China and the US, both responsible members of the international community, to strive for a peaceful and prosperous world in the long term far outweighs any disagreements.
The US has benefited most from the stability and prosperity of the current international system. In the 21st century, China and the US should continue strategic cooperation with a view to building a global system contributing to world peace and development.
What we see today is a new situation that is totally different to major shifts in the relations between big powers in the past. Historically, rising powers sought to change the existing international rules and balance of power, while the so-called "interests-defending powers" would usually adopt a strategy of appeasement or containment, which often led to war.
But today the "rising powers" such as China and India have constructive partnerships with the "interests-defending powers."
In terms of combating terrorism, preventing nuclear proliferation, the trade imbalance between China and the US and the foreign exchange rate system, China has engaged in positive and friendly cooperation with the US, even though many of these problems are caused by American policies.
China is not a challenger to the established international system. Nor are current Sino-US relations a repeat of the traditional jostling between a rising nation and a hegemonic power. This indicates China and the US are primed to carry out extensive strategic cooperation. As Kissinger noted, under current global conditions, there is no common enemy, but rather a common opportunity based on the peaceful and progressive world system.
Economic globalization has increasingly made peoples of different countries interdependent. Therefore, there is huge potential in the partnership between China and the US.
(China Daily October 25, 2005)
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