The United States has misjudged China on the South China Sea issue and this will be costly, said a China studies scholar.
The United States has misjudged China, its intention and its role in relation to the South China Sea issue, Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute, the National University of Singapore, told Xinhua through the phone on Monday.
"It based its judgment on its own historical experience as an expansionist empire and its deeply rooted great-power ideology, and not on China's diplomatic performance in the region," he said.
U.S. STRATEGIC MISJUDGMENT
Zheng, a well-known scholar on China studies, said that China, unlike the United States, "does not have a missionary culture or missionary diplomatic policies."
While heavy U.S. presence in the region is regarded by some in China as a threat, China does not have its own version of the Monroe Doctrine to drive U.S. influence out of the region, he said.
U.S. concerns about the freedom of navigation are not justified, either. China wants to safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea more than any others as it depends heavily on the important sea routes there.
Generally, China and the United States do not have direct geopolitical conflict in the South China Sea, Zheng said.
"A misjudged strategy will be costly to America," he said.
China has said it welcomes the United States to play a positive role in regional peace and stability, like contributing to maritime security.
China has voiced support for a dual-track approach on the South China Sea issue. It advocates common efforts by regional countries to safeguard regional peace and stability and insists that the South China Sea disputes should be dealt with through peaceful bilateral channels between countries directly involved in the disputes.
APPROACH ADVOCATED BY CHINA
The U.S. has repeatedly emphasized that the South China Sea issue "must be resolved peacefully without a big nation presiding over smaller neighbors." But Zheng said the implied accusation that China is a bully is essentially biased.
The U.S.-backed approach of internationalizing the disputes is simply not helpful, as territorial disputes often leave no room for the claimant states to back down, and any efforts to create a hype will only escalate tension, he said.
Late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, admired worldwide as a great leader and known for his pragmatism, recognized that the South China Sea disputes could be resolved and therefore proposed joint development.
The approach advocated by Deng is better because it suits the complicated historical context. China and its neighbors in the South China Sea region had co-existed for thousands of years before the creation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
