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Finding ways to put Sino-US differences aside
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RECENT tensions over the South China Sea territorial disputes and the US’ “pivot” to Asia have soured Sino-US relations.
Since President Xi Jinping put forward his proposition of a new type of great power relationship last June, the term has gained traction but issues have also arisen. How the US and China can overcome differences was a key topic at the third Taihu World Cultural Forum, held on June 18-19 in Shanghai.
Alternatives
Orville Schell, director of the Center on US-China Relations at the Asia Society, argued that given little sign of improving bilateral ties, it might be wise to try alternatives to high-level exchanges between Washington and Beijing. One key alternative is to move some of the issues on which both sides find it hard to reach compromise “down the ladder,” to municipality and provincial levels, where things tend to be much less controversial, polemic and fraught with history, he said.
In his opinion, regional governments, freed from the burden of having to deal with charged issues like trade disputes and human rights records, will have greater chances of building better relations.
Schell is pessimistic about the state’s role in developing soft power, saying “it is almost never successfully developed by government.”
Former US Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill disagreed. “I’m not ready to give up on government-to-government exchange at the highest level,” although he admitted that relations are going through a difficult period.
Blackwill lamented the fact that the two sides are ceaselessly repeating their talking points. “One of the disturbing things is that both countries are fully committed to the idea that fault lies with the other side,” he noted.
The increasingly polemic Sino-US ties will be costly, as they threaten cooperation on defining issues such as climate change and anti-terrorism.
According to Blackwill, to build a new great power relationship, “we have to introduce new candor, flexibility and discussions” and also “constrain each side’s nationalist interests.”
At a time when the world is concerned about where Sino-US ties are headed, it is necessary for both countries as mature great powers to transcend the calculations of temporary interests and gains, said Zhang Guozuo, director of the Center of Soft Power Studies, a government think tank.
Some setbacks
Robert Daly, director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, agreed that soft power is essentially about achieving diplomatic goals and thus does not necessarily produce win-win results.
He pointed out that China is vigorously developing its soft power to make its model, practices and values more attractive to the world. But this ambition has met with some setbacks. “China is disappointed with the limited ability of its soft power, especially contemporary culture, to appeal to audiences in the West,” he said.
Even when US policies are plain wrong and hypocritical, they don’t dent the almost universal appeal of American soft power, said Daly.
A student of Chinese language and culture, Daly sees ancient Chinese culture as an intimate art of personal cultivation. However, it doesn’t reverberate well on a global scale, for want of a translation mechanism that can parlay people-to-people contact into something meaningful for a strategic relationship.
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