(Xi's U.S. Visit)Spotlight: Xi's U.S. visit to deepen connotation of new-model of major-country ties

Despite resurrected talks of pessimism in Washington over China-U.S. ties, many Chinese and U.S. experts agreed that Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming state visit to the U.S. could help dispel the qualms and inject fresh momentum into bilateral ties.

During a recent meeting with U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice in Beijing, Xi reiterated China's commitment to building a new model of major-country relations with the United States, featuring no-conflict and no-confrontation, mutual respect, and win-win cooperation.

As Xi's upcoming first state visit to U.S. attracts global attention, China has once again demonstrated to the world that it is working hard to seek a sustainable and steady growth of China-U.S. relationship, and more importantly, to foster a new paradigm of healthy ties between world's major countries that will contribute to realizing lasting peace and progress of mankind.

CONFRONTATION NOT AN OPTION

"A sort of strategic anxiety toward China has been on the rise among U.S. policymakers and experts," observed Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at China's Fudan University in Shanghai.

For example, he said, David M. Lampton, a leading China expert in Washington, has recently warned that the U.S.-China relationship is at a "critical tipping point" that gets closer to a cliff.

Talking about such so-called "China anxiety complex" in Washington, Wu told Xinhua that it partly derives from a comparative change of national strengths of the two nations.

In 1979 when China and the U.S. established diplomatic relations, China was among the world's poor countries. Today, the country has grown into the world's second-largest economy, rolling out a series of global initiatives such as Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and "One Belt One Road" that will have a far-reaching impact on the world economy.

For China-U.S. relations, the changing global landscape presents both greater opportunities and more complex challenges.

In essence, the U.S. concerns about China reflect a Cold War mentality and a lack of confidence, said Chen Jimin, a young international relations scholar at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

"The United States needs to change their attitude, recognize and adapt to the new characteristics of the times," he said.

"Uncomfortable as China's rise is for the United States, there is nothing unnatural about an increasingly powerful China demanding more say and greater sway in relations among nations," he added.

Despite anxieties toward China-U.S. ties and all the talks about conflict, most experts said confrontation is not an option for both sides.

"I believe the areas of common interest and common endeavor far outstrip the areas of differences," said Vikram Nehru, senior associate of Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, citing the examples that the U.S. government expressed appreciation for China's participation in the talks about nuclear agreement with Iran, and the two countries discussed climate change.

Despite the disagreement between the two countries, he said it is important to differentiate between them. "There's this very positive track of cooperation between the two countries."

Nathaniel Ahrens, director of China Affairs at University of Maryland, considered Xi's visit comes at an important historical juncture and is positive.

"There is increasing cooperation between the two countries on climate issues, so this is another positive factor," he said.

Indeed, no-conflict and no-confrontation is a necessary prerequisite to building a new model of major country relationship between China and the U.S, which is not only of great significance for the two countries, but also for the whole world.

WIN-WIN INSTEAD OF ZERO-SUM GAME

"If the new model of major power relations is a frame, then actions will determine what the picture in the frame actually looks like. A framework is helpful for signaling intentions and bounding discourse, but participants also need to demonstrate the substance with actions," said Ahrens.

Douglas Paal, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Xinhua that Washington endorses the Chinese -proposed concept of new model of major-country ties for obvious and sensible reasons.

The top challenge for building a new-model of major-country ties between China and the U.S. is Washington's persistent skepticism toward China's strategic intentions and its reluctance to treat China as an equal, according to Qian Wenrong, a China-U.S. relations expert affiliated with Xinhua News Agency, wrote in a recent article. "Mutual trust is a key for constructing a new model of major-country ties between the two sides," he said.

However, despite all the challenges, the general picture in China-U.S. ties largely remains unchanged: common interests outweigh differences while instances of cooperation outnumber disputes.

Nowadays, with an annual bilateral trade value of 550 billion U.S. dollars, China-U.S. economic ties have never been more interdependent. The exchanges between the two peoples have never been more frequent, with more than 10,000 Chinese and Americans traveling across the Pacific every day.

Simply put, the two big countries just cannot afford to head into a zero-sum game due to their increasing convergence of interests.

Legendary U.S. investor George Soros once warned Washington in an article that "the U.S. has little to gain and much to lose by treating its relationship with China as a zero-sum game," while calling for building a strategic, mutually beneficial partnership with China.

Scholars in both countries agree that despite ideological, political, economic and social differences, the two sides can look far beyond the current disputes and manage them constructively, continue to hold dialogues and cooperate on major issues of mutual concern. They said eventually the China-U.S. relationship will maintain a momentum of steady and healthy development with win-win achievement.

VISIT TO BOOST WORLD'S CONFIDENCE

Over the past two years, guided by both President Xi and President Barack Obama, the world's two biggest economies have been taking concrete steps toward building a new model of major-country relationship and have maintained good development momentum in bilateral ties despite occasional disputes and frictions.

Experts believe that Xi's upcoming state visit will further consolidate the relationship and bring confidence to the future of the two countries and even the whole world.

"I expect that both sides will want to use the visit to extend the spirit of cooperation demonstrated in the meetings between President Obama and Xi in Beijing last November," said Robert Daly, director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the U.S. at the Wilson Center.

"Xi Jinping's state visit to the United States will be a milestone for bilateral relations," said Chen at CPC Party School, adding that it will prove to the world the China-U.S. relations are still on the normal track of development, and will continue to develop along the direction of building a new model of major-country relationship.

"I think President Xi's state visit could be quite significant if it is used not only to symbolize the importance of the relationship but also as an occasion for the two leaders to engage in a genuine exchange of views beyond the 'talking points' they will have in their briefing books," said Alan Romberg, distinguished fellow and director of East Asia Program of the Stimson Center.

He also hoped the two leaders work hard on finding a way forward in the relationship that is more trusting and more productive.

Years before the normalization of China-U.S. Relations, some U.S. diplomats once asked in a skeptical tone: what can we buy from China?

Four decades later, with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's listing at the New York Stock Exchange, a Chinese company's acquisition of Landmark Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City and Americans' growing dependence on "made-in-China" products, China and the United States have forged a community of common interests.

"The state visit is likely to set the tone for the next year and a half until a new administration enters office in Washington," Paal from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said.

Since the importance of China-U.S. relationship transcends the bilateral level with deep regional and global impact, Xi's U.S. visit will send a positive message of confidence to the world, according to Wu from Fudan University. Enditem

Xinhua reporters Yang Qingchuan and Liao Zhenyun in Beijing, Zhi Linfei, Zhou ErJie and Shi Yingshan in Washington contributed to the story.

Editor's note:

Later this month, Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to pay his first state visit to the United States since he took office in 2013. Starting on Thursday and through October, Xinhua is to wire a series of in-depth stories on China-U.S. relations and the historic visit.

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