Year of cooperation marks US, China relations

Beijing and Washington have witnessed "a rise after restraint" in their interactions this year amid China's more proactive actions to lay out strategic cornerstones to prop up a "major-country diplomacy" that features stabilizing neighborhood, spearheading global economic development and weaving a network of partners, analysts said.

In a year summarized at a recent ministry reception as "a harvest year for Chinese diplomacy", President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang conducted 12 overseas visits to 30 countries in 2014, including Asian neighbors, as well as countries in distant Europe, Latin America and Oceania. Through more frequent bilateral interaction, Chinese leaders have spelled out a foreign policy vision that features good neighborliness and win-win cooperation.

So far, China has built various partnerships with 67 countries and five regional organizations, illustrating the "major-country style" in a non-aligned but partner-up approach.

Chinese leaders also voiced and propagated new economic and security concepts at a series of multilateral conferences such as the Nuclear Security Summit in the Netherlands, the sixth BRICS Summit in Brazil, and Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Tajikistan.

In late November, Xi highlighted China's pursuit of a "major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics", namely new style and vision, on the premise of continuity and consistency of China's foreign policy, at the Central Conference on Work Relating to Foreign Affairs.

Observers said the remarks signaled Beijing's diplomatic shift from its traditional approach of "keeping a low profile" toward striving for accomplishments, given the country's status as a rising economic giant.

In particular, the two intertwined global powers of China and the US have continued to forge a new paradigm of "big country relations" in the face of disagreement and competition.

Teng Jianqun, a senior research fellow from the China Institute of International Studies, said the China-US relationship is shifting into a "new normal", a term Xi has recently adopted to describe the current stage of China's economic development.

"Despite fierce competition and frequent setbacks in traditional areas such as trade and security, China and the US have managed to avoid conflicts and seek in-depth understanding," Teng said.

Bilateral tensions stood high at the beginning of the year following futile efforts by Washington and its regional allies to thwart China's designation of its Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), in the East China Sea.

To prevent China from launching a parallel in the disputed South China Sea, the US had thrown intensive objections in the first half of the year, questioning China's territorial legitimacy in relevant waters. On the other hand, Washington avidly endorsed hardline claims by Manila and Hanoi, further interfering in the disputes by calling for international arbitration and a "voluntary freeze" of provocative actions.

"In terms of South China Sea, the US is no longer satisfied with simply 'waving flags' at the backstage, instead it is intervening with a purpose of creating regulations to its own advantage," said Wu Xinbo, executive dean of Institute of International Studies with Fudan University in Shanghai.

Hostility regarding maritime differences was evident during high-level visits to Beijing by US Secretary of State John Kerry in February, followed by then Defense Chief Chuck Hagel two months later.

During his visit to Japan in April, President Barack Obama for the first time clearly stated that the US security treaty with Japan covers China's Diaoyu Islands, manifesting Washington's increasing determination to back up Tokyo's contested stance.