The new round of talks between the United States and China on Asia-Pacific region policies and issues in the last week of June are significant to both Sino-U.S. relations and the region.
The Asia-Pacific is one of the world’s most important regions. The 21 APEC members share 40% of world population, 54% of world output and 44% of world trade. The rise of a bunch of newly-emerging economies in the region has made them not only the robust engines of world economic growth, but also an important force to respond to global challenges. Accordingly, the Asia-Pacific is where big-power interests converge and developed countries interact with emerging economies. So it becomes important in shaping the international configuration in the 21st century.
Asia-Pacific started to become highly dynamic when new waves of multilateral cooperation emerged in the 1990s. Today, its frameworks of cooperation are establishing and expanding. Cooperation is vibrant and full of opportunity. But it also faces challenges. Security issues, traditional and non-traditional, coexist; bilateral and multilateral issues interweave. There are not only disputes over territorial lands and seas, but also national disasters and terrorism. Because of its important strategic status, its robust economic growth, and the width and depth of the challenges it faces, the region’s and world’s fortunes are linked. Peace, stability and development of the Asia-Pacific not only effects the well-being and fate of countries in the region, but also the world. In a sense, if the Asia-Pacific stabilizes, so to will the world.
Converging interests
Asia-Pacific is the region where Chinese and U.S. interests converge. They’re each situated on the two opposite banks of the Pacific Ocean. They are respectively the largest developing country and the largest developed country in the world. They are also the world’s two largest economies. The 30 or so years from when China established diplomatic links with the U.S. and their ties developed is the same time span in which China launched its reform and opening-up. Their cooperation not only pushed China and U.S. respective economic and social development, but also made a great contribution to the stability of the region and the world. The rapid growth of China’s strength and influence and the wider development of globalization and interdependence have led in the Asia-Pacific region to growing interactions, focuses of interests and contradictions between China and the U.S.. Hence, the Asia-Pacific configuration is undergoing important adjustment, transformation, and reshaping. Both the U.S.-led regional security order and the China-led regional economic configuration need to coordinate and adapt to each other. Therefore, to maintain sound and stable Sino-U.S. relations is particularly important. If Sino-U.S. relations stabilize, so to will the Asia-Pacific region.
Co-operation opportunities
Asia-Pacific should also become the major region for Sino-U.S. cooperation. China and U.S. consultation on the Asia-Pacific is aimed at expanding areas of cooperation and common interests, coordinating strategic policies, maintaining regional peace and stability, dealing squarely with their differences of interest, and addressing contradictions. The current talks are not intended to seek collaboration, or to seek China and U.S. co-domination of Asia-Pacific affairs. Rather, they are to strengthen communication, coordinate strategies, enhance mutual confidence to allow better interaction in the region between the two countries, to safeguard stability of security, and to promote sustainable economic development. Along with the growing importance of Asia and China in the international system, come common interests and contradictions between China and the U.S. in the Asia-Pacific. It has therefore become urgent for the two countries to establish consultation mechanisms, to coordinate positions with each other, to avoid strategic misjudgment, to manage crisis, to expand cooperation, and to commit to regional stability and development.
A peaceful Sino-U.S. relationship makes both countries winners but a confrontational one makes both losers. China and the U.S. share more common interests than differences. The Asia-Pacific offers more opportunities than challenges. With mutual respect for each other’s core interests and with equal and effective consultation, China and the U.S. can shed cold war thinking and a zero-sum mindset to jointly build a more stable, peaceful and prosperous Asia-Pacific in the 21st century to benefit both the region and the globe.
Qin Yaqing is Vice President of the Foreign Affairs College and Professor International Studies.
