It took 70 years for China to arrive as the world’s second largest economy and they did it with absolute discipline and determination fending off all colonial powers. But during that period they were building their battered nation, one thing was at the back of their minds that they would want to build a nation of respect and to treat all their neighbours as brothers. Even though they are the second richest country in the world and has the largest market and factories, they still have huge respect for the western nations especially the United States that it is every Chinese dream to go holiday and study.
They still hold the Americans in high esteem and the only problem they are facing is the continuous bashing and bullying that is definitely having serious effect in their relationship as well as making the West think that the reason why the Americans are doing that is because China is a threat to the Western powers democracy and rule of law.
But does China really planning global dominance or are they fighting to stand up on their own feet and not allow other countries to dictate the way they live? The former Chinese leader Deng Xiaopeng made it very clear what China wants and what should happen to China if they are planning global dominance.
He said “China is not a superpower, nor will she ever seek to be one… If one day China should change her color and turn into a superpower, if she too should play the tyrant in the world, and everywhere subject others to her bullying, aggression and exploitation, the people of the world should identify her as social-imperialist, expose it, oppose it and work together with the Chinese people to overthrow it.”
China does not seek global dominance, nor does it want tensions with the United States to escalate further. To be fair, I think over the last few decades, China has learnt many things from the United States. I think what China should never learn from the United States is obsession with global dominance.
Discussions of China-US ties, which have sunk to the lowest point since the two countries forged diplomatic relations in 1979, have been featured remarkably at the three-day forum, which also had a panel discussion on their relations moderated by Joseph Nye of Harvard University. After US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a speech at the family home of Richard Nixon, The secretary used what US media called “dramatic Cold War language” to blast decades of formal relations with China and accused Beijing of seeking global dominance.
Following China for decades now, I don’t think a new Cold War will serve anybody’s interest or will give them any solution to the problems. Why should we allow history to repeat … when we are faced with so many new challenges? We must cautioned both countries that the historical metaphors regarding a new Cold War could be misleading, because unlike the rivalry with the Soviet Union, the US has a lot of trade and social contact with China.
Today the status quo is quite different from the 80s and in addition to that, you have some issues like climate change and pandemics where one can’t do anything unless they cooperate with each other. I personally believe that China “certainly” has no intention to pursue global dominance, but to create a level playing field where mutual respect will be observed between them and how they can work together to build a harmonious world for all. But many Americans in the government talk about this so often, it seemed to me that there’s such an obsession with it.
Commenting on the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston and subsequent shutdown of a US consulate in Chengdu last month, I would say is “really unfortunate” for the US side to decide to close China’s first consulate in the US that made China retaliated. In diplomacy, the principle of reciprocity is always followed, so we’ll have to respond. But the world certainly doesn’t want to have all this from the very beginning. We certainly don’t want to see any escalation. American Secretaryof State Pompeo recently declared engagement with China a dismal failure, the Chinese ambassador offered a more optimistic and pragmatic perspective in observing the normalization of relations between China and the US.
The Chinese Ambassador said the growth of the relationship over the decades has served the interests of both countries and the world very well. It’s quite clear all of us are still enjoying the positive outcome, the benefits of this close relationship, nobody can really deny this. Reading comments from former deputy Secretary of state and US trade representative in the early 2000s Robert B. Zoellick in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal on May 18 stated it is flat wrong to suggest that working with China has not served US interests.
There will always exist differences between the two countries in historical heritage, culture, economic development and political systems, they should not be seen as barriers for closer relations but rather as opportunities for mutual learning and cooperation. Today President Trump has said that TikTok will be shut down in September unless Microsoft or another American company purchase it, because of national security concerns over user data, which TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance has denied. This shows such a degree of political intervention, government intervention into the market and discrimination against Chinese private companies.
My personal opinion, I think it’s not fair to make such allegations without giving evidence and to accuse China of not giving American companies a level playing field, while at the same time they themselves are denying Chinese companies such a level playing field, it’s extremely unfair. When China started its vaccination process they were alleged to have hacked it from the West without any evidence. Then they turned to Russia. But I think the international community should really cooperate with each other to develop as soon as possible an effective vaccine, which should be shared by the entire world, and I hope by October we will start the vaccination process around the world to bring an end to covid.
The world is watching and hoping that America and China will see reason to work together in building world of respect and shared value for all to live in harmony. I believe that equal and constructive dialogue between the two nations to ease the growing tensions between them is necessary as the bilateral ties should not be dominated by differences, miscalculation and confrontation.
China, as always say they are ready to develop candid and effective communication with the US in a calm and rational manner. They are ready to restart dialogue with the US at different levels and areas on any topic. But this can be achieved if Washington abandons its arrogance and prejudice and come back to the right track of non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation.
The Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has made it very clear that they resolutely opposes the “new Cold War “advocated by some US political forces, saying it thoroughly goes against the fundamental interests of the two peoples and also runs counter to the trend of the world’s development and progress. China is not the Soviet Union and it has no intention to become another United States. They will firmly stick to the path of peaceful development, firmly pursue the opening-up strategy of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, and remain committed to acting as a champion of world peace, contributor to global development and upholder of international order.
The talk of cold war must stop as this is not the 20th century, but this is a time that we must work together and continue to build the global village where every country will have its own space to operate and collectively fight hunger, aggression, famine, drought, war and climate change.
I want to end by quoting the late Nelson Mandela who said “Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.”