Keeping abreast of the times best way to de-risk

At an event of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on Friday, US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell warned that the ties between China and Russia are growing and threatening the interests of Washington and its allies.

"In many ways, China and Russia have chosen each other, believing that they can offer each other a lot," Campbell said. He said that the Sino-Russian partnership "is largely hidden, rarely fully public, but is now active." He said this is "deeply concerning".

"I'm not sure that we could have averted or dented or disrupted this growing alliance, but I will also say we tried, and at the ultimate level China and Russia have chosen this path together in ways that will animate global politics that are only now coming into view."

Campbell's remarks reflect an ingrained zero-sum game mentality of some in the core policymaking circle of the Joe Biden administration that not only leads to its attempt to usher in an era of bloc confrontation for the world, but also its failure in addressing such burning issues as the Ukraine and the Middle East crises.

In the illusion of these Cold War minds, there always exists an "axis of evil" against the "civilized world" led by the United States. This illusion will continue to guide the US to defeat its present challenge, which they consider to be China.

They choose to ignore the fact that China is different from the Soviet Union in every way, but also the overall situations of the world today is different from those of the Cold War era, as the economic globalization over the past decades have closely bonded countries together.

That being said, the US administration should realize that cooperation and development, mutual learning, equality and mutual respect should replace bloc confrontation, cliquism and unilateralism as the prevailing principles for handling modern international relations.

If the US pundits can really move in line with the times, they would be able to view the ties between other countries rationally, and also reflect on the nature of the US' global alliance network objectively.

Like any other normal bilateral relations, China-Russia cooperation does not target any third party. It is the alliance network established by the US around the world that targets others, which is a highly exclusive, unilateral system based on US "values", rather than a multilateral and inclusive system centered on the United Nations.

As long as the US recognizes the necessity of Sino-US cooperation in dealing with common global challenges, including some of the US' own making, it should not divide China into three parts — a part it can work with, a part it should compete with, and a part it has to confront — and act accordingly.

- Li Yang, China Daily