Commentary: Asia-Pacific not China-U.S. wrestling ring

As Chinese President Xi Jinping wraps up his first state visit to the United States, China-U.S. interaction in the Asia-Pacific region is entering a more predictable and reassuring track.

A series of signals emanating from the trip, which has been closely watched around the world, indicate that both of the two giants understand the need and share the desire to maintain peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.

Against the backdrop of tangible -- albeit ill-grounded -- worries in international punditry that the region is turning into a ring for China and the United States to wrestle for influence, their latest agreement to deepen dialogue on Asia-Pacific affairs is encouraging.

The Asia-Pacific is the main theater of China-U.S. interplay. Having the world's largest developing and developed countries under its roof, it bears the lion's share of both their common interests and their differences and frictions.

And the Asia-Pacific is vital to global peace and development. It now carries 40 percent of human population, 48 percent of world trade and 57 percent of global output. It is the cradle of many development miracles, and its economic dynamism provides sustained thrust for global growth.

That is why China-U.S. engagement in the Asia-Pacific is important. Positive, it benefits all; negative, it harms all. As former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and a host of others have acknowledged, Asia-Pacific security and development hinge on the trajectory of China-U.S. relations.

Notwithstanding their recent sparring over South China Sea, the two countries have kept a generally cooperative and productive relationship in the region, both within such frameworks as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the Six-Party Talks, and in such areas as climate change, anti-piracy and counter-terrorism.

Yet elements hindering sound China-U.S. interaction in the region are also easy to find. Some of Washington's actions under the umbrella of its "rebalance to the Asia-Pacific" strategy have complicated the regional geopolitical structure and proved harmful to bilateral relations and Asia-Pacific harmony.

For example, Washington's sizeable enlargement of its already formidable military presence in the Asia-Pacific has emboldened some claimants in the South China Sea territorial disputes to make counterproductively aggressive moves, although the United States pledges not to take sides on the complex rows.

At the root of those impediments is Washington's inability to discard the outdated Cold War mentality. As Professor Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, has said, "the so-called 'threat' that the U.S. faces in Asia -- fears that China will eventually push it out of the region -- is therefore more cognitive than real."

Those obstacles are in no way insurmountable. The key is to strengthen bilateral contact and communication and cement mutual understanding. On top of that, they need to tighten the intertwinement of interests and deepen their interdependence.

In the eyes of Kenneth Lieberthal, a senior fellow at Washington-based think tank Brookings Institution and a former senior director for Asia at the U.S. National Security Council, the U.S. rebalance to the Asia-Pacific is designed with "good intentions," but "I don't think that it has been sufficiently successfully communicated."

To bridge the trust deficit, as the renowned China expert suggested, the two countries can beef up military-to-military ties, rev up consultations on the Korean Peninsula denuclearization issue, and speed up negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty.

Besides, the two sides can turn the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) from a pit of potential rivalry into a spring of more cooperation. The absence of China, the largest goods trader in the world, from the process has bred speculations about the top two economies on the planet elbowing each other for rule-making leadership.

As Roger Cliff, a senior fellow at the Asia Security Initiative of the Atlantic Council, another Washington-headquartered think tank, and many others proposed, the United States ought to welcome China should the latter apply, so as to prove Washington's insistence that the framework is not intended to exclude China.

Beijing's stance on China-U.S. interaction in the Asia-Pacific is consistent and explicit: The vast Pacific Ocean is big enough to accommodate both China and the United States, and China welcomes the United States to play a constructive role in the region.

During the Chinese president's state visit to the United States, that message has become ever clearer. It is incumbent on the two countries to seize the positive momentum and build the Asia-Pacific into a dancing pool for the benefit of all, instead of allowing it to retrogress into a destructive wrestling ring. Enditem

Xinhua reporters Deng Yushan in Beijing and Zhi Linfei in Washington contributed to the article.

Editor's note:

Xinhua is covering Chinese President Xi Jinping' s first state visit to the United States with a series of in-depth stories both on the landmark event and on the overall China-U.S. relations.

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