China and the US: Urgent Need for Cooperation

On the 41st anniversary of the Sino-American communique, the two countries have elected new leadership, and are entering into a new type of power relationship.

Over the past four years, the strengths of each opposing political climate, the “mutual trust deficit,” the “new Cold War” and “strategic encirclement” have become the new buzzwords to describe U.S.-China relations. As Obama’s second term as president began, U.S. policy seemed to show signs of positive change. In his inaugural speech and State of the Union address, Obama focused on stability in Sino-American relations as a goal to focus on during the next four years. Obama appointed John Kerry and Chuck Hagel to the cabinet as secretaries of state and defense, which shifts the attitude towards China to be more moderate, balanced and objective. Recently, Shinzo Abe left the United States empty-handed, which indicates that the United States has begun to reflect on their Asia-Pacific strategy and of “rebalancing growth.”

These changes obviously indicate progress but ultimately are not sufficient. In order to achieve strategic stability between the United States and China, we must have the boldness to shut down outdated authorities and replace them with new ones. Currently, there are three major problems that need to be resolved.

I. Establishing New Developmental Frameworks

Over the past 40 years, China and the United States have formed entirely different civilizations and societal structures, achieving a remarkable type of peaceful coexistence between the two great world powers. Considering the decision-making nature of the two countries and the desire to want to make “qualitative change,” however, the current framework maintaining the relationship remains inadequate. Economic and trade relations, for example, were previously naturally complementary and reciprocal. After substantial economic development on both sides, however, the complementary nature of the relationship has weakened while competitiveness has been strengthened, making eventual conflict inevitable — the need for new regulations is therefore essential. In another example, the problems that arose from the U.S. selling firearms to Taiwan have their origins in the relationship between the U.S. and China established during the Cold War. As trading has shifted, the relations between the U.S. and China and the U.S. and Taiwan have undergone historic changes. The impact of the Taiwan arms sales issue on the tripartite relation necessitates reviewing of regulations; forms of interaction like the Internet, the seas and others have not had sufficient attention paid to them in light of this issue, and thus both sides need to increase their emphasis on establishing new regulations.

Chinese leaders have put forth the idea of building a new type of relationship between the two great world powers, sending the message that China hopes for a peaceful coexistence with the United States, from which they can both derive mutual benefits and respect each other, instead of running into conflict and confrontations that would result from being enemies. Although this resonated positively with the U.S. government, they have, as a whole, responded with ambivalence. In essence, the world leader that is the United States has found it difficult to conceive of a shared future with China.

The new framework between the relationship must respect the interests of both countries, identify and prioritize common interests and emphasis the improvement of political, economic, military, security and cultural interactions. Common interests should be prioritized, which should be based on shared responsibility and common values. Specifically, the two countries should aim to achieve long-term strategic stability in their construction of the new relationship between the major powers. China and the United States should also create cooperation from their competition and aim overall for healthy competition. Both countries must establish that constructive cooperation is to remain the most important goal, and must not let domestic politics and “third party” factors interfere.

II. Seeking an Interactive New Path

Considering the U.S. strategy of “returning to Asia” and the fact that China is on the rise, the strategic situation in the Asia-Pacific region that has lasted for centuries is being completely revamped. This trend has made Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines and other countries restless. But in the end, peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region depends mostly on the relationship between the United States and China. Therefore, establishing benign interaction with the Asia-Pacific region is urgently necessary.

The relationship between China and the United States in the Asia-Pacific strategic game appears at first tense and difficult to understand, but in actuality, both countries are fully equipped to achieve peaceful cooperation. First of all, there are no disputes over the sovereignty of territories or waters and no deeply-rooted historical grievances, which represent important prerequisites for peaceful coexistence. Secondly, the two countries both have various advantages in the Asia-Pacific region: the U.S. with military and security based advantages, and China with economic and cultural advantages. Each of these merits is difficult to quickly replace. Therefore, third parties cannot simply make a choice between the two, instead taking the best of each world — relying on America’s so-called “security,” China’s economy and its own government. This peculiarity prevents the formation of a bipolar structure between China and the United States in the Asia-Pacific region, and promotes the idea of China and the United States reflecting together to build mutual tolerance and a peaceful coexistence. Ultimately, cooperation between China and the United States will help to offset conflict in the Asia-Pacific region and in other areas of the world.

In the author’s opinion, the two countries need to work together to tackle the so-called “12345” issue. “One” refers to resolving the fundamental issue of power struggle in the Asia-Pacific region; “two” refers to the two different China-U.S. security and trade system issues; “three” refers to the East China Sea, crisis management of its waters and the Taiwan strait; “four” refers to promoting cooperation with four important trilateral relationships: U.S./China/Japan, U.S./China/Russia, U.S./China/India and U.S./China/Australia; “five” refers to the strategic communication and coordination between the East Asia Summit, APEC, TPP, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the formation of a Northeast Asian Security Cooperation.

III. Rebuilding a New Peace Foundation

The United States and China, two extremely different but powerful countries that have been in peaceful co-existence for 40 years, have always had a common strategic foundation. The Cold War threatened this peace, but the end of the war united common economic interests. Ten years after the 9/11 incident, the U.S. and China now share common economic interests and cooperate in counter-terrorism. Now, however, the old basis has seemed to lessen in relevancy and a new foundation is still looking to be established. During such a unique period of time, the overall relationship between the United States and China remains vulnerable to eventual individual contingencies that could reverse the situation entirely. Therefore, it is necessary to establish this new foundation as soon as possible, in order to ensure a new era of peaceful coexistence.

Between China and the United States in today’s globalized, polarized world, forming a single foundation similar to that used to deal with the Soviet threat during the Cold War is entirely possible, but needs to specifically be addressed toward issues including recovery, reinforcing economic and trade interests and forming a mutually-beneficial economic and trade relationship. It also must address global problems like climate change, energy, natural resources, overpopulation, the environment, global governance and seeking a “common problem” in order to unite and create traction for the new cooperation. In the current changing international system, the world must unite to jointly bear the responsibility of the most powerful countries in order to form a new international order. Through communication by air, earth, sea, the Internet and so forth, the “global public domain” must strengthen dialogue and communication, forming a new “destiny” for the better good of all, and build a new code of conduct based on common interests. In short, we must establish a truly strategic mutual trust between China and the United States. Although this is a process that may not be easy to accomplish, it is imperative for both sides to cultivate mutual cooperation.