Sina Finance published its interview (in Chinese) with CICIR President Yuan Peng on Sino-US
relations on October 21. In his interview Yuan Peng said, "There is a deep-rooted tradition in the United States in dealing with international relations "from a position of strength". As a country that
pursues realism, the United States has always pursued "power is truth" since it became the world's
number one power in the 20th century". He said, "there are two special reasons why the United
States" has repeatedly emphasized "starting from strength and status": "One is to emphasize that the
United States is still the world's number one power" and is constantly emphasising "starting from
the status of power" to respond to China's "theory of rising east and falling west," and to prove that
the world is still in the hands of the United States. "The second is to reflect the deep-seated worries
of the United States about its own strength and status. Faced with domestic and foreign problems
(and even worse domestic problems), the United States is less confident in its own strength than in
the past". The phrase "starting from strength and status" is said every day to cover up the anxiety in
his heart, but to highlight the deep-seated worries about the problem of his own strength and status.
Stating that "China is looking at a general trend over a century or even a few hundred years, and it
is not confined to a specific thing", he added that "the United States does not see the historical trend
and does not respond to it through deep-level reforms, it still uses absolute strength to handle the
relationship between major powers, which is going against the trend of history". He said while "the
"September 11" incident in 2001 caused the United States to encounter a security crisis. The
subprime mortgage crisis in 2008 caused the United States to encounter an economic crisis. Trump’s
victory in 2016 was regarded as a political crisis. It may also face a social crisis that has not been
seen in decades", China on the other hand, "joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, it has
been dedicated to development and adhered to the path of peaceful development, and its
development is changing with each passing day. But what really worries the United States is not
exactly the dimension of China's economic strength or GDP growth, but the rise of science and
technology, the rise of military, and the development of its own system behind the economic rise".
He stressed that "In particular, the mystery supporting China's rise is the socialist system with
Chinese characteristics and the leadership of the Communist Party of China, not the Western one.
It turns out that some people in the United States predicted that China's continued rise must rely on
the implementation of the Western system, and that economic freedom will eventually lead to
"Western-style democracy." However, it is precisely through the improvement of its own system
that China has achieved great development. This makes Americans completely unable to sit still,
and even "sleeping and eating". Yuan Peng said "from a strategic point of view, China and the
United States have undergone strategic changes simultaneously in the past 20 years. From "Asia-Pacific rebalancing" to "Indo-Pacific", the United States shifted its strategic focus to China's
doorstep to deal with China, and implemented the so-called global strategic contraction and AsiaPacific strategic offensive. As a result, the two powers of China and the United States have "headon collision" and "hand-to-hand contact" in the Asia-Pacific region for the first time in a century".
"Therefore, they often look at each other's every move in a strategically suspicious manner". "Third,
China and the United States have lost the strategic foundation they relied on in the past. As two
countries with completely different social systems, ideologies, civilizations, and stages of
development, China and the United States used external factors as a solid strategic basis to support
and maintain their relations. During the Cold War, it relied on the Soviet Union, after the end of the
Cold War, it relied on economy and trade, and relied on anti-terrorism after the "9.11" incident". He
attributed the United States hurriedly withdrawing from Afghanistan as "It would rather lose its face
and realize a strategic shift from counter-terrorism to responding to China". Observing that the two
heads of state have spoken again and climate change cooperation between the two sides has been
steadily advancing, he said "Sino-US relations have eased under tension. Ms. Meng Wanzhou
returned to the motherland after a lapse of three years. It was achieved in this atmosphere. . All this
has at least produced positive and good results in the minds of the Chinese people and laid the
foundation for promoting peace and stability in the relations between the two countries", however,
he said "we have also seen that the United States has created regional tensions through dangerous
methods such as the formation of the US-UK-Australia Alliance (AUKUS) and has not loosened its
containment and confrontation with China. The fundamental reason for the settlement of the Meng
Wanzhou incident is that the Communist Party of China, the Chinese government, and the Chinese
people have worked together and persisted throughout the struggle. It is the result of struggle and
does not mean a major change in the United States’ strategy towards China. If the Sino-US game is
a protracted battle or strategic stalemate, then phased relaxation or tension will be a normal state.
The current easing is only intermittent and partial". Yuan Peng explained "China's "world view" is
mainly manifested in three aspects. The first is the "Hundred-Year Change Theory." The big
changes in the world and the great rejuvenation strategy of the Chinese nation are like the horizontal
and vertical coordinates, which determine the world situation and the overall stage of China. The
second is the "historical opportunity theory", that is, whether compared with itself or others, China
is still and will be in a period of strategic opportunity for a long time, even a longer period of
historical opportunity. The third is the "development risk theory", that is, the more you are in a period of strategic opportunities, the more you must see various risks. The current stage is precisely
the stage with the highest risk coefficient". He said, "Whether the Sino-US game is moving towards
full confrontation or striving for peaceful coexistence will test our wisdom" and that for China "the
great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is the overall situation, and the Sino-US relationship is a
small situation". He stated, in conclusion, that "Regarding the concerns of the outside world, China
needs to maintain a calm mind. It must be good at repaying morality with virtue, and it must also be
good at reporting grievances directly, and it must also dare to fight at critical moments. The rise of
great powers in history is often achieved through war. We are determined and confident not to
achieve the rise by war, but struggle is indispensable"
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