How Should China "Treat the Guest"?

The American “Asian Dance” tends to change from a waltz to a tap dance. At the APEC meeting, Obama wholeheartedly promoted the Trans-Pacific Partnership, then visited Australia, where he announced he will deploy more troops, and attended the East Asia Summit. This is the first time the U.S. attended the summit.

The U.S.’s “coming back to Asia” specifically aims to rebuild U.S. leadership in Asia. Hillary once said that the U.S. had been distracted by the Middle East region for ten years and will put the focus on Asia. However, this time, the U.S. does not seem satisfied with just causing a ripple, trying, rather, to trigger a huge wave. Looking at the regions around China, we can see that the U.S. is warming up by becoming a militarily ally with Japan and Korea, stimulating the conflicts on ownership of land and ocean between China and other countries, letting these countries go first to disturb and consume China, selling more than $10 billion in weapons to India, establishing more than 10 military bases in Central Asia in the name of anti-terrorism, cooperating more with Mongolia and enhancing its military presence in Australia.

The vice secretary general of China Association of Policy and Science and famous military analyst, Major General Peng Guangqian, during an interview with us, said that the most important thing China should do is to calm down and not to overly care about U.S. actions. He claimed that when you dwell too much on one issue (maybe it is not important at all), it will become an issue even if it wasn’t. He says, “God only exists when you believe in his existence and admire him. This is a psychological war.”

A researcher in China Foundation for International Studies, Wang Taiping, thinks that the U.S. will become more and more involved in Asian affairs. The friction between China and the U.S or China and other Asian countries will increase. The Chinese should be aware of this. He said, “We shouldn’t fuss when others begin to interrupt; we shouldn’t think it is the end of the world when others are brandishing the bar. The world is so big and the conflicts are so many. We can’t describe the current situation in Asia as significantly severe and shouldn’t believe that all of these threats are only pointing to us; it is also unnecessary to regard U.S. as God. The U.S. seems to try to circumscribe U.S. via allying with other Asian countries. The U.S. looks intimidating and aggressive, but the actual effects are still unknown and we will see.”

In light of the U.S. returning to Asia to intimidate, China should calm down. The deputy dean of the School of International Studies at Renmin University of China, Jin Canrong, during an interview with us, advised, “To face the U.S.’s ‘invasion,’ China should be as stable as a mountain. The U.S.’s current strategies reflect its deficiencies. The U.S. is going downward, while China is going upward. To use economic terminology, U.S. has big stocks, but China has excellent increment. In this situation, U.S. is on the defensive. Therefore, the key is that China should be confident. We should believe that time is on our side. If we don’t make mistakes, the future is ours.”

RAND Corporation recently promulgated an analysis report stating that the possibility of face-to-face conflict between China and U.S. is very low. The purpose of U.S.’s alliance with countries around China is probably just to bluff. Nevertheless, the U.S. might not be the “friend in need” because the U.S. is a practical country. Its allies’ safety is an important interest, but not the core interest.

We should be confident about the future and peace development in Asia. Wang Taiping says that Chinese should abandon the concerns about “weakness” and should try to learn to use Big Country logic to tackle diplomatic relationships. Then we can dominate and won’t sway; then we can control actively, eliminate conflicts, avoid traps and won’t misunderstand the situation. Then we will not need to face the complicated strategic conflicts in a hurry or do impulsive things.

A researcher in Xinhua Center for World Affairs Studies, Qian Wenrong advises leaving the U.S. alone if it decides to join the game in Asia. However, in this game, only the one whose development is more energetic and can offer more opportunities to surrounding countries, will have more qualification to speak in this area and exert influence. Hence, “no matter how the U.S. interferes, we should follow the settled guidelines, continue to enhance the relationships with Association of Southeast Asian Nations, develop the China-ASEAN Free Trade areas, continue to develop friendships with India and Australia, and not alienate these countries because of U.S.’s strategies. On the other hand, during the reforming, China should continue to develop and advance itself. This is the key point,” said Qian Wenrong. The U.S., in the future, will keep making big waves. But if we do what we should do, we can sit down and watch U.S.’s “Asia Dance” with calmness.