China-US Relations’ ‘Valentine’s Day’

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is visiting China Feb. 14 to 15, dates that happen to align with the Western holiday Valentine’s Day in both time zones.

An early statement from a State Department spokesperson said that during his visit Kerry will communicate “that the United States is committed to pursuing a positive, cooperative, comprehensive relationship and welcomes the rise of peaceful and prosperous China as a nation that plays a positive role in world affairs.”

Carefully orchestrated or pure coincidence? Does this early message of goodwill and Valentine’s Day timing herald a new type of world power relationship, one that is jointly constructed and will lead to new chapters in bilateral relations?

Since World War II, China and the U.S. have experienced several relatively stable periods of intimacy. During wartime, China and the U.S. became allies against fascist aggression, defending world peace and justice shoulder-to-shoulder and hand-in-hand. America backed China in the War of Resistance, while China made strategic contributions on the Asian battlefront.

China and America’s relationship began to thaw in the 1970s Cold War era, in the context of collaborative resistance to the Soviet menace and with America bogged down in the quagmire of the Vietnam War. In the late 1970s, the two nations normalized relations. In this period, China also began to adjust domestic policies in response to the world’s judgment and set economic development as its central task. The establishment of diplomatic relations contributed to reforms, increased openness and economic development in China. After forming diplomatic ties, China and America maintained a 10-year honeymoon period.

After the 9/11 attacks at the beginning of the 21st century, counterterrorism became America’s top priority. On first taking office, the George W. Bush administration had adopted tough, cowboy-style policies toward China. While the attacks did not cause the U.S. to abandon its restrictiveness and wariness toward China, they did make it so the U.S. could not help but regard China as a stakeholder and caused them to begin developing a constructive, cooperative relationship. Bilateral cooperation expanded in many areas including politics, economics, security and culture; the relationship entered a comparatively mature, stable state.

Since Obama took office, Sino-American relations have overall maintained a positive and stable momentum, especially with the consensus the two countries’ leaders reached during their Annenberg talks on constructing a new model for world power relations, planning a beautiful vision of the future beyond that of the Thucydides trap.

From the above experience one may infer several elements that are conducive to drawing China and the U.S. closer together: the common responsibility for world powers to safeguard world peace and development, the need for pragmatic cooperation devoid of ideological bias and the recognition by determined and brave politicians on both sides that their domestic and international situations will not allow two heavyweight world powers to deny support from the other.

So, can these factors help construct a new model for world power relations? Of course; additionally, rapid globalization and China’s accelerated rise will only help more, not less.

At present, peace and development still are the two major themes worldwide; as permanent member states of the U.N. Security Council, China and America have a special common responsibility as world powers to safeguard world peace and development. It is currently unknown whether America has realized it yet or not, but maintaining the post-World War II international order and the hard-won collaborative victory over the fascists really isn’t China’s responsibility alone. Despite America’s ideological bias and enduring self-righteous double standard, what it cannot deny is this: Now that full-scale pragmatic bilateral cooperation has emerged and China is a pivotal component in Sino-U.S. “communities of interest” that are now so close, acting according to the tangible benefits of ideological bias is really not a wise move. China and the U.S. joining hands cannot cure all ills, especially now as regional hotspots are emerging across the globe in numerous succession, but without it, it would be very difficult to resolve any significant international issue at all.

Indeed, the two-sided nature of U.S.-China policy has always existed. Anxiety over China’s rise and fluctuations in each other’s strength have made America’s feelings toward China unusually sensitive and complicated, and have also created the kind of relationship where “it is easy to love one another but difficult to get along.” However, America should be clear that in the past 30-plus years, China has developed within the existing international order rather than challenge it. As long as America respects China’s core interests and concerns, China does not mean to become its enemy. If America’s intention in “returning to Asia” is to hedge its “imagined enemy” China, then the past few years of practice should have illustrated that America’s actual trouble is that some countries deliberately create “war threats” from China, using powerful connections to bully others and satisfy only personal interests. So what’s the solution? This is precisely the situation in which America’s political decisiveness and courage are most needed.

It is precisely because of this dual nature that even during this warm and romantic day, we shouldn’t hold on to unrealistic fantasies. Kerry may have sweet words for China on this Valentine’s Day, but with a turn of his head may stress America’s responsibilities to Japan, showing their intimacy. But rational and realist political decision-making means that China and America’s establishment of a new model for world power relations is irreversible, or nearly so. Perhaps since neither side will be agitated by “sweet speech and honeyed words,” nor will they fly into a rage because of “cold speech and sarcastic comments,” even less likely are they to squabble indecisively because of a third party’s “idle and irrelevant rumors” on their journey forth to an ultimately genuine and mature intimacy with each other. I wish China and America a happy Valentine’s Day!