China & U.S.: Better to Be False Friends than Real Enemies

This month’s China-U.S. summit has been called by well-known foreign diplomacy mastermind Zbigniew Brzezinski to be “the most important top-level United States-Chinese encounter since Deng Xiaoping’s historic trip more than 30 years ago.” The Chinese find Brzezinski’s thoughts on “How to Stay Friends with China” pleasing to the ear, but domestic American opponents say these words are “near foolishness.”

Making friends with this kind of United States is something that makes Chinese people weary. America’s China policy is scattered at every level. As for “China-friendly” matters, nothing the White House says counts for anything. On “anti-China” matters, however, even a nongovernmental organization can make big waves. The amount of trade between the two countries is great, but the mistrust between them is even greater. The U.S. suspects China is “nursing vengeance,” while China looks on helplessly as America’s aircraft carrier makes its “innocent passage” through its coastal waters. Chinese people are a little resentful when American media denounces them as “arrogant.”

Chinese philosophy emphasizes a clear demarcation between oneself and one’s enemy, but it is difficult to apply this to the United States. The U.S. is clearly not an enemy in the traditional sense — it is the main objective of China’s opening up to the outside world, and it is the most important measuring stick for China’s social progress — but can you consider the U.S. a friend in the usual sense? Everyone knows that some people in Washington, D.C. are very interested in the emergence of political upheaval and even division in China; of all of the opponents of China’s modern system, about half are in the U.S.

Not being friends with the U.S. is out of the question, but not guarding against it won’t work either. In this game of chess against the U.S., China is playing from a weak position; it wants not only to uphold relations, but also to “struggle against without breaking.” Although the history of Chinese civilization is rich, this step toward the threshold with the U.S., spanning from ancient times to the present, is surely our longest test.

While the position of the U.S. remains unclear, it is not a bad plan to pull it in as a friend, rather than push it away as an enemy. In making friends with the U.S., China must be a little “confused.” For example, U.S. military troops publicly “guard against” China while Congress urges “containment” of China. This kind of friend is even worse than a bad neighbor, but what else can be done? Competing for “friendly relations” with great powers is usually like this. Upon careful reflection, from our perspective, today’s China-U.S. relations are much more cost-effective than the Soviet-U.S. relations of the past.

China’s total economic output has, in recent years, surpassed that of the great European powers one after another, and furthermore, has overtaken Japan. Yet all the trouble with them was merely China’s rising “mock exam”; the process of China’s economic power gradually approaching that of the U.S. in the future will be the “real exam.”

If we can make friends with someone who frequently expresses discord and discontent, while also not letting the U.S. become our public enemy, and if we can make it so that all of the competition between China and the U.S. is in the market, instead of being carried out on the battle field, this is how Chinese civilization could score full points in the 21st century.

When making friends with the U.S., it is not the “making friends” that is important, but rather self-study. The several “bites” the U.S. has taken out of China have all been achieved by looking for China’s domestic “cracks” — arms sales to Taiwan and meeting with the Dali Lama and “dissidents” all interfere with China’s administration of justice, no exceptions. When all is said and done, China-U.S. competition is a competition between the two nations’ domestic prosperity and stability. Following the increase in China’s strength as a whole, it has become harder and harder for the U.S. to use extreme tactics to provoke China, but we could still suffer from the strong impact of the soft power that the U.S. unleashes against China.

In international relations, each nation is “self-interested.” The stronger you are, the stronger your ability to make friends. You might also be able to make false friends into real ones.