Four Things to Be Done to Promote Future China-U.S.Relations

Le Yucheng

World peace and security hinge greatly on how the two powers of China and the United States co-habit in the next few decades.In this sense, the forthcoming general election in the United States and the 18th National Communist Party Congress in China shall be two major events of far-reaching significance.

China and the United States have already formed an inseparable community of destiny sharing common interests.Bilateral trade has increased from a mere US$2.45 billion when formal diplomatic relations between the two countries were established to an estimated 500 billion by the end of this year,and personnel exchanges expanded from less than 10,000 persons per year around 30 years ago to nearly 10,000 persons per day at present. Students studying in each other’s country,which were very few in 1978, had amounted to over 180,000 in 2011. The U.S. side is executing the plan of sending 100,000 students to study in China by 2013. Such deep integration between China and the United States demonstrates that the two countries are indeed inseparable.

Assistant Foreign Minister Le Yucheng addressed the Fourth Conference on Sino-U.S. Security Relations and Cooperation.

The combined GDP of China and the United States, the top two economies in the world, accounts for almost one-third of the world’s total. Any economic and financial trouble in the two countries would produce a great impact on the world economy.

As two major members of the Perm Five in the UN Security Council, they are inevitably involved in decision-making on many major international matters. In U.S. Secretary of State Hillary’s words, the United States and China may not solve all problems in the world but no major problems can be solved without U.S.-China cooperation.

China and the United States are the two biggest countries in the Asia-Pacific region. As the region is increasingly becoming the center of the world, the direction of China-U.S. relationship shall, it can be said, determine the future of Asia-Pacific as well as the peace and development of the region.

The meaning of China-U.S. relations is so great that it shall never be over-evaluated. It has far exceeded the bounds of the two countries to be of extensive significance in the world.We are obliged and duty-bound to cherish and safeguard this relationship and ensure its smooth development without being interfered with and undermined.

Looking forward to the development of China-U.S. relations in the coming few years, we must do well the following four things.

First, we must secure a sound transition of relations between the two countries.

Both China and the United States have important domestic political agendas this year that absorb a great deal of energy and attention of both countries. After the new administration assumes power in the United States, we must further intensify our work to ensure a good beginning of relations between the two countries.

Good momentum of high-level exchanges should be maintained and the role of such mechanisms as bilateral Strategic and Economic Dialogue, high-level discussion on cultural and personnel exchanges, dialogue on strategic security, and consultation on Asia-Pacific affairs should be further strengthened. Convergence of each other’s interests should be deepened, cooperation between the two countries should be expanded and new cooperative growth areas in infrastructure construction, trade and investment and energy should be created. Cultural and personnel exchanges should be enhanced and major bilateral exchange projects such as the plan of“100,000 American students studying in China”should be fixed and put into effect as soon as possible. Consultation and cooperation between the two countries on international affairs should be reinforced with continued constant communication on regional affairs in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, South Asia and Africa and dialogue and consultation on such hotspots as the DPRK nuclear issue, Iran nuclear issue, Syria and South and North Sudan. In a word, the two sides should work together to continuously provide impetus and vitality for the long-term development of bilateral relations.

Second, we must well control the contradictions and differences between the two countries.

The key to maintaining smooth and healthy development of China-U.S. relations is mutual non-suspicion and non-fussing about nothing. Ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi has a famous saying:“Governing a big country is like cooking a small fish.”True is the case of managing relations between big countries like China and the United States. China and the United States are at different development stages and have vastly divergent values and cultural traditions. The bilateral relationship, which is full of complex and sensitive factors, is just like a tiny tender fish that could not stand constant stir in the pan.

Ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi has a famous saying:“Governing a big country is like cooking a small fish.”

Not long ago, scholars of the two countries held a discussion on mutual suspicion on strategies of each other’s country and they reached the view that suspicion between the two countries remained quite deep and hence mutual trust badly needs to be enhanced, especially at the strategic level. For instance, quite some people in the United States believed that China wanted to challenge the leading position of the United States in the world,while in China not a few people maintained that the United States was trying by all means to obstruct China’s rise. In fact,such is a kind of logical inference and a way of conventional thinking.

The two sides should strengthen dialogue and communication to enhance mutual understanding and trust. They should try their best to think positively of the other side but not the opposite.I appreciate highly the principle of“presumption of innocence”in judicial theory, which stipulates that a suspect should be regarded as not guilty prior to his/her conviction of crimes. The two sides would be unable to deal with each other if they suspect everything the other side does at the very beginning. Just like if we enter a shop and suspect all commodities are bogus while the shopkeepers suspect all money the customers pay are fake, then no transactions could ever be made. If China and the United States apply the principle of“presumption of guilt”to each other, no cooperation could ever be carried out.

The contents of new-type big-power relationship can be summarized as inclusiveness, win-win and innovation.

It is said that there is an“iron rule”in American campaigning politics, that is, China-bashing is never wrong. In the current American general election, China once again becomes the target with both presidential candidates vying with each other to demonstrate who is tougher toward China. Obama stated that he raised during his term of office nine trade suits against China in the World Trade Organization,which was more than the total number of suits launched by G.W. Bush in two terms. Romney said on the other hand that he would put China on the list of“currency manipulators”the first day he assumes office. How would the 1.3 billion Chinese people think of such actions of the American side? For another example, private Chinese enterprises like Huawei and Sany were denied access to U.S. market for security reasons,which also made the Chinese public deeply puzzled. Why such principles and ideas like free market, fair competition and mutually beneficial cooperation persistently flaunted by the United States become invalid when Chinese enterprises want to enter the U.S. market?

As a matter of fact, such actions, viewed from the end results,could neither solve America’s own problems nor win over more votes for the contending candidates but would damage America’s image and affect the cooperation between China and the United States. It is a case of harming the others without benefiting oneself.

Third, we must well handle a new-type big-power relationship.

China and the United States have reached consensus on developing a new type of big-power relationship between them. The contents of new-type big-power relationship can be summarized as inclusiveness, win-win and innovation.

By inclusiveness, it means there should be more mutual understanding, trust and thinking in the other’s position.In particular, things like ideology, values, and governance principles are formed in the course of hundreds and thousands of years of exploration by a nation and state. It is a case of“different conditions shaping different people”as the Chinese put it or“path dependence”in American expression. Hence no attempt should be made to intervene in and change them, even less to impose one’s ideology, values and governance principles on the other. If so, there would be conflicts or even war.

By win-win, it means both sides, not one side, should be benefited from the exchanges and cooperation, and no side should seek maximum interests at the expense of the other side. If one side should seek maximum interests for itself, the interests of the other side would be minimized and as a result,it would be difficult to maintain cooperation. Especially in face of the challenges brought about by globalization, all sides are in the same boat with their interests intertwined. There would be no more such cooperation in which only one side wins while the other side loses. The only result now is either both will win or both will lose.

By innovation, Secretary of State Clinton has put it clearly that we should use new means to solve the old problem, the problem of constant conflicts between a rising power and the incumbent power in history. Faced with more and more new problems and challenges, we need to constantly innovate on our thinking and practice and should not search for old tools from the“toolbox”of the Cold War times or even the 18th and 19th centuries. We should dare to open up new paths, as all paths are created by human beings.

Fourth, we must well manage the affairs in the Asia-Pacific region.

Both China and the United States are Asia-Pacific countries and Asia-Pacific is the region where the interests of China and the United States are most closely integrated and their interactions are most frequent. The maintenance of stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region has a close bearing on the respective development of China and the United States,and the building of a new-type big-power relationship between the two countries must start from the Asia-Pacific region. The just-concluded Fourth China-U.S. Consultation on Asia-Pacific Affairs was a success during which both sides exchanged views and“checked the time on their watches”regarding the forthcoming ASEAN Summit, appropriate handling of regional affairs and other matters and reached consensus on launching new cooperative projects in the region. It is impossible that China and the United States should or could take charge of all matters in the Asia-Pacific region, but their positive interactions and cooperation in Asia-Pacific affairs are no doubt of vital importance to the peace, stability and prosperity of this region.

At the same time, we must also see that the Asia-Pacific situation remains very complicated and China and the United States still face a host of challenges. The Diaoyu Islands issue is an outstanding problem in the Asia-Pacific region at the moment.The root cause of the issue is Japan’s usurpation of China’s inherent territory and all other disputes originate from this. The heart of the Diaoyu Islands issue is Japan’s attempt to reverse the verdict on history by negating the results of the Second World War and to challenge the post-War international order. In recent years, the right-wing forces in Japan have been swelling and their words and deeds such as denying the Nanjing Massacre,disavowing forced recruitment of“comfort women”, agitating for Japanese leaders to pay homage to Yasukuni Shrine, advocating arms expansion and war preparedness, and trumpeting abrogation of the peace constitution have been mounting.

The positive interactions and cooperation between China and the United States in Asia-Pacific affairs are no doubt of vital importance to the peace,stability and prosperity of this region.

Having both suffered huge sacrifices in and made great contributions to the anti-Fascist war, China and the United States must maintain high vigilance against such trends in Japan and strengthen cooperation to firmly contain the arrogance of the Japanese right-wing forces and prevent Japan from drifting farther on the wrong path and plunging Asia and the world once again into disaster. We demand the Japanese side clearly understand the situation, make profound selfexamination, cast away illusions and correct its errors with action by immediately stopping all acts of encroaching upon China’s territory and sovereignty.

Some people say that China is now the second largest economy as well as the largest developing country in the world,a phenomenon that has never occurred in history. But that is the reality of the present-day China. China it too big and too complicated. Some media commented that China’s population equaled to the total population of the entire Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the United States, Japan,and Latin America and hence the complexity of her problems would absolutely not be less than that of the problems of those countries put together. To well administer such a huge country is indeed no easy job. Yet we are confident of our future and China’s development promises a bright prospect.

China’s economic growth has slowed down a little bit in the first half of this year, which was due to the dragging of the external economic slump as well as the macro-regulation that we took the initiative to make. However, statistics of the third quarter,especially September, showed a clear sign of steady performance of the economy with almost all economic performance indicators point to improving and picking up. This demonstrates that the Chinese economy will not have a“hard landing”and the potential of its development remains quite strong. At present,the ratio of urbanization in China is only 51% and the proportion of services in GDP is just a little over 40%, which means there is still a considerably big space for development compared with the developed countries. The domestic needs in the abovementioned two areas will provide vigorous impetus to China’s development in the forthcoming years.

The sustained development of China will definitely benefit the world. China’s overseas investment is fast growing, amounting to an accumulated sum of US$500 billion in the coming five years. In addition, China will import commodities worth at least US$8 trillion, and more and more Chinese citizens will go abroad for tourism. The number of Chinese tourists going abroad will exceed 80 million this year and it will soon reach 100 million.China remains, undoubtedly, a powerful engine of the world economy and shall continue to create more opportunities and make greater contributions to the region and the world.

We will not, of course, neglect the current and potential contradictions and problems.We are confident that we can cope with the difficulties and challenges on our way ahead.We believe in the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the unique superiority of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics. We see some people are acclaiming the“China miracle”while at the same time criticizing the CPC that has led the Chinese people to create such“miracle”and attacking the socialist system in China that produced such“miracle”. It is neither objective and fair nor logical. To know China, it is necessary to look at it in light of development. One must see that China is constantly changing, progressing and improving, the orientation of its development is definite and the development path it takes suits its realities.

To know China, it is necessary to look at it in light of development.One must see that China is constantly changing, progressing and improving.

The forthcoming 18th National Congress of the CPC shall further demonstrate to the world that China will adhere to reform and opening up, scientific development and win-win cooperation. China shall continue to unswervingly take the path of peaceful development and stick to the good-neighborly policy of friendship and partnership with neighboring countries. At the same time, it will resolutely safeguard its state sovereignty and security, tolerating no challenge whatsoever on its bottom line as far as its core interests are concerned. Only when China’s sovereignty, security and development interests are ensured will it be possible that China’s path of peaceful development becomes steadier, firmer, wider and farther.