Skip to content

Chinese Expert Discuses the One Belt and One Road Initiative and Sino-U.S. Competition

China Review News reported on China’s think tank expert Wang Wen’s discussion of the first "Hundred People Forum on the One Belt One Road Initiative.” Wang is the Executive President of the Chongyang Institute of Finance at the People’s University of China (also known as Renmin University). The following is the report on Wang’s discussion.

Wang said that Sino-U.S. relations are gradually entering the first-ever global scale, three-dimensional competition of big countries. China’s diplomacy is entering a new normal state of “bracing up and pressing ahead (奮發有為).” The major projects and planning for the “One Belt and One Road" initiatives are gradually entering the implementation and promotion phase. China and the U.S. are in an unprecedented policy contact and interests collision worldwide at a number of different points, lines, and surfaces. How to avoid combat between China and the U.S. that is too intense and too close so the relationship does not deteriorate into a full scale competition is a test of both countries’ wisdom
Wang said that, in the U.S. view, China is the only rising power in history that is close to the level of the United States in national power. The U.S. is unable to broaden the gap. In contrast, the United States cannot make the determination to inhibit the development of China, and cannot find a way to deal with China’s rise. The U.S.’s "boxing" attitude against China in the military field often encounters the Chinese "Tai Chi" attitude as a response [in boxing the goal is to "knock out" the opponent; in Tai Chi one diffuses the opponent’s attack]. More than US$500 billion in economic and trade exchanges hold the mainstream American business and industrial community in check. Since the financial crisis, the U.S. has been less and less confident in its political system and has no clout to dictate to China about its system and social development path. However, no matter how much the two countries do not want to see the China and U.S. competition intensify, that China and the U.S. are competing at the global level has become a basic fact. 
Wang said that in 1500 years of history, there has always been an existing dominating power colliding simultaneously with an emerging power in all three areas of ideology, military security, and financial currency. China and the U.S. are gradually entering the first-ever global scale, three-dimensional competition of great powers. 
At present, some U.S. media and politicians frequently manifest a hardline attitude on the South China Sea, currency, cyber security, and ideology. For the sake of maintaining stability in Sino-U.S. relations, China must pay great attention to and cannot lose sight of a potential “black swan event” in the interaction of big countries. 
Source: China Review News, August 11, 2015 
http://hk.crntt.com/doc/1038/8/4/1/103884133.html?coluid=202&kindid=11695&docid=103884133&mdate=0811002819