Confrontational path not an advisable choice: China Daily editorial

To cooperate or to confront, this is the question for China-US relations.

An article jointly written by Kurt Campbell, former deputy secretary of state in the previous US administration, and Rush Doshi, former deputy senior director for China affairs on the National Security Council, published in The New York Times on the weekend, calls for the current administration to confront China by maximizing the United States' own strength through its alliances.

Only through partnerships can the US protect its shared industrial bases, technological edge and the ability to deter China, they argue. Claiming that it is not too late for the administration to build allied scale, despite the coercive approach it has adopted, they call for the administration to redirect its leverage toward the goal of balancing China's "overwhelming capacity", which will otherwise leave the US diminished and more isolated.

It is not difficult to smell the stink of the Cold War mentality in the article. Both writers obviously consider China-US relations to be a matter of one power — the US — dominating the global order. They believe that the US must leverage its ties with its allies to counterbalance the rise of China. According to the authors, there is no third path — it is either the US or China that will dominate global affairs.

But for China the situation is not simply an either-or scenario. In his telephone talk with US President Donald Trump on June 5, Chinese President Xi Jinping pointed out that recalibrating the direction of the giant ship of China-US relations requires the two leaders to set the right course. For that, he said, it is particularly important to steer clear of various disturbances and disruptions.

The path Campbell and Doshi urge the Trump administration to follow in handling China-US relations is undoubtedly a disturbance and disruption as it calls for the US and its allies to confront China.

The world is not what it was. The Cold War mentality that pervades the article does not apply in this increasingly multipolar world.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, after meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on July 11 in Kuala Lumpur, told the media that from the perspective of human evolution and development, the interests of China and the US converge in a wide range of areas and there is huge space for both countries to cooperate.

As Wang said, China and the US have the responsibility and ability to find a path on which both countries can get along with each other in a desirable manner. This is in the interests of both peoples and what the entire world expects of the development of China-US bilateral relations.

Although the writers claimed in their article that their aim was not to contain China, which they believe is impossible, they look at China-US relations through the lens of the Thucydides Trap, believing that it is impossible for the US and China to cooperate for the well-being of humanity.

It is more than necessary for those in Washington with such a mentality to consider carefully the four initiatives that China has proposed: the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative, and the Global Governance Initiative.

The four initiatives seek to harvest the wisdom and strengths of all countries, both developed and developing ones, to address the deficits in global development, global security, civilization exchanges and global governance. From these four initiatives, it is not difficult to see that China does not pursue hegemony. Instead, it seeks a global synergy of resources to address the common challenges humanity is facing and desires the common development of all countries.

China is not trying to challenge the status of the US. Rather it seeks to cooperate as much as possible with the US to create a fairer and more just world order, which will better facilitate global development and world peace.

If those politicians in Washington who are afraid that the US may lose its hegemonic status with China's rise could be broad-minded enough to look at China as one of the major poles in a multipolar world and seek cooperation instead of confrontation with it, the world would be a much better place for all countries and peoples.