The above 51-page February 2019 Report by the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations is meticulously prepared by an impressive array of leading US China experts. The team is led by Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations, and Susan Shirk, chair of the 21st Century China Center and research professor at the University of California, San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. Ms Shirk previously served as deputy assistant secretary of state from 1997 to 2000.
The Report advocates a change of course in US-China relations. This is in response to President Xi's stronger, more assertive China which is perceived to behave in ways often at odds with America's norms and values supporting the existing world order.
The Report's launch panel in Washington D.C. on 12 February pointed out that while China converged with those norms on initial entry into the World Trade Organization, in recent years it has increasingly diverged from them. As a result, there is strong bi-partisan consensus for a more robust stand against a rising "China Threat".
The Report delves into the full panoply of concerns with China on trade, military and technological ambitions, the South China Sea, Taiwan, human rights and China's growing global influence, including the Belt and Road Initiative. Under a banner of "Smart Competition", it suggests all-of-government re-balancing towards clear-sighted confrontation against China's perceived transgressions without giving up cooperation on issues of common interests.
The Report warns against over-reacting towards a Red Scare which harms best American interest. It acknowledges that the American people's attitudes towards China are more balanced. It also concedes that the United States should first strengthen its own competitive capacities and avoid trampling on allies and traditional American norms and global institutions which have served American interests well.
At the launch panel, Ms Shirk wanted the United States to rise above China's "lowest common denominator" of "exclusionary" behaviour, without comparing it to President Trump's "America First" unilateralism. China's increasing role in providing common goods such as in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and in fielding the largest contingent of UN Peacekeeping Force, more than the rest of Security Council Permanent Members' contributions combined, seem to be forgotten or interpreted as a sign of a China Threat to supplant the United States.
The Report seems another shot across the bow against China's perceived intentions to eclipse the United States in the Asia-Pacific, if not globally.
America's about-face towards China has been a loud wake-up call. If this is not enough, even the European Union has now called for a united trade and tech front against 'rival' China.
Even before the trade war intensified, Beijing tried to enact laws to address the legitimate concerns of foreign investors such as intellectual property protection and equal treatment. At the March 2019 National People's Congress (NPC)/Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) "Two Sessions", it is reported that the New Foreign Investment Law Goes on Fast Track . This augurs well for eventually shaping a historic, comprehensive US-China trade deal that would underpin better US-China relations, even as geopolitical rivalry endures.
However, in light of serious misgivings in Western and other countries, China will have to double down on its contribution to common goods, create a more level-playing field for everybody, enhance its transparency, and somehow transform itself into a more tolerant, less authoritarian nation, if she to realize the essence of her Two Centenary Goals, as my South China Morning Post Op-ed of 24 January 2019 insinuates.
