How China Sees the World by Huiyun Feng & Kai He & Xiaojun Li

How China Sees the World by Huiyun Feng & Kai He & Xiaojun Li

Author:Huiyun Feng & Kai He & Xiaojun Li
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789811504822
Publisher: Springer Singapore


Common Interests and Fading Optimism

Conflicts and competition are not the only issues between the United States and China. As our survey research has already suggested, some scholars are more optimistic about the future of US–China relations.32 While recognizing the potential for conflicts between the two nations, they place more emphasis on the countries’ common interests, which could lead to more cooperation.33 Consistent with our survey results, the common interests identified in the scholarly publications include nuclear non-proliferation in the Korean Peninsula, anti-terrorism in East Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East, trade, and climate change. Some scholars were even confident that an adjusted cooperative framework built on these common interests could withstand the turbulences of the new Trump administration.34 Others suggested that the two countries could find common ground in the Asia-Pacific region, given their shared interests in its economics and trade, regional multilateral cooperation, and security governance.35

For example, Xu Jian has argued that US–China relations will maintain some momentum, ensuring a bright future for cooperation and healthy competition. Although the two countries might experience some friction over trade, Xu feels this is only a minor aspect of their bilateral relations, whereas their economic interdependence will direct the long-term trends in US–China cooperation.36 From a regional security perspective, Zhu Feng has argued that North Korean nuclear non-proliferation ranks high on the security threat agenda for both countries and thus is an area of potential collaboration.37

On global governance, Chinese scholars also believe that the United States and China share some common interests. For example, Da Wei argued that there are four pillars of US–China strategic interdependence: nuclear balance, economic interdependence, global climate change, and socio-economic linkages between the two nations.38 Da emphasized the overarching threat from global climate change as a common interest between the two nations for future cooperation. In a similar vein, Zhao Xingzhu asserted that US–China cooperation in the climate change arena has gone beyond the domain of bilateral relations, with the two nations forging a “co-leadership” to foster international cooperation in global governance.39

Besides climate change, some Chinese scholars highlight the common interests between the two nations in the maritime domain. Wang Dong and Yang Yuchun argued that both countries wish to sustain the stability and order of the international sea lanes and thus have a shared incentive to work on a code of conduct to regulate their respective naval behaviors.40 Zou Yanyan and Hou Yi further pointed out that the United States and China have in the past cooperated on many “non-sensitive” maritime issues, from fighting pirates to illegal fishing activities, and could continue to do so in the future.41

Nevertheless, such optimism about US–China relations has declined over time. This can best be seen in the number of articles on the “new type of major power relations” (NTMPR), which call for the two countries to set aside their differences and collaborate on issues of common interest.42 Before 2016, 17 articles in the top five Chinese IR journals had NTMPR (the phrase or the acronym) in their titles, and most of them were optimistic.



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