Global Times published an opinion article based on a book by Yang Bin titled, “The Hidden Economic and Financial War of the United States.” Yang is a research fellow at the Institute of Marxism, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
“The study indicated that the U.S. government’s China policy often fluctuates between softness and toughness. Behind the apparent erratic changes lies the ‘carrot and stick’ psychological warfare strategy. The strategy can produce a strong psychological shock in opponents and cause internal disagreement and conflict within international opponents. It is just like iron and steel which are, hard as they are, not afraid of direct impact, but cannot withstand repeated bending and will break due to a lack of flexibility. The study argues that China should alternate between ‘toughness and softness’ to respond to the U.S. "carrot and stick" two-pronged strategy. Regardless of whether the U.S. takes a soft approach to lure China or a hard approach to intimidate China, China should not panic, but remain clear-headed, and deal with it calmly. According to a 2010 U.S. public opinion poll, most Americans do not support Obama for re-election. The next president is likely to take a tough foreign policy, or even intentionally perform ‘irrational madness’ to promote U.S. interests. China should be fully prepared for U.S. foreign policy to change from a soft to a hard approach."
Source: Huanqiu, June 2011
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/dialogue/2011-06/1743429.html