China-U.S. relations are at an important stage of mutual adjustment. We should ease this process by building up mutual understanding and people-to-people exchanges.
A senior American scholar asked me what the Chinese dislike about the United States. I sought views from people around me. Among the responses, there were both heartfelt praises and sharp criticism.
Many Chinese admire the achievements of the U.S. and strength of Americans. On the other hand, the Chinese have reservations about America's bias on China and hold their opinion on its foreign policy. Many Chinese people hope the U.S. will behave more responsibly in promoting peace and development in the world.
The differences of perception have something to do with the "structural contradictions" between the two countries. The most prominent manifestations of the structural contraction are the negation and stereotypes on Chinese political system.
To many Americans, China focused on collective interests, lack of democracy and human rights, and thus "not correct"; in the eyes of many Chinese, the Americans respect their values, tend to engage in political evolution in other countries, and thus need to remain vigilant to it. Such simplistic, pattern recognition, inevitably affect each other's views on many issues. The so-called Sino-U.S. "strategic mutual doubt", to a certain extent, also stems from this.
A newer cause of structural contradictions between the two countries is that the U.S. has felt the impact from China's rise. It is also concerned that China is challenging U.S.-dominated rules and order. What the Americans care about is not necessarily the rights and wrongs of sovereignty disputes but the imagined question of whether China is driving the U.S. out of Asia.
Another interesting recent chapter in this story is America's hesitance about the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, an international financial institution initiated by China.
Actually, what China intends to do is to provide a new public good to help developing countries in Asia and beyond to overcome the funding bottleneck of infrastructural development. But the U.S. sees the AIIB as an attempt to start a new order outside the U.S.-dominated global economic and financial system.
The U.S. and China felt like they were in the same boat when they had to fight the 2008-2009 financial crisis together. Now, the world economy is far from fully stabilized after the crisis. There is every reason for the two countries to cooperate and to meet challenges together instead of undermining each other.
China and the U.S. are both big and complex countries. China-U.S. relations are at an important stage of mutual adjustment. We should ease this process by building up mutual understanding and people-to-people exchanges. If China and the U.S. can enhance cooperation and promote better understanding between our peoples, the whole world would benefit.
This article is excerpted and edited from How Chinese and Americans Are Misreading Each Other -- And Why It Matters, which is published on the World Post. A Chinese version of this article appears on People's Daily. The author is Chairperson of Foreign Affairs Committee, National People's Congress.
