Wisdom needed not narrow-minded nationalism: China Daily editorial

The US lawmakers seem to be infected with a virus that gives them the delusion that the United States will automatically fix its problems if it fixes China.

Evan as the US Senate is debating on the Endless Frontier Act which "would authorize historic investments in critical science and engineering research" to counter China's technology advancements, the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee proposed yet another anti-China bill on Tuesday.

Disregarding the basic norms of international relations and global trade, as well as the one-China principle that the US acknowledges as the foundation for Sino-US diplomatic relations, the Ensuring American Global Leadership and Engagement Act, or Eagle Act as its rather laboring-the-point proposers would like it to be known, covers almost all the areas in which the US thinks it is in contention with China.

It includes provisions to increase US support for separatists, extremists and terrorists in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, as well as the secessionists and so-called democracy and freedom fighters in Taiwan and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Although out of character with the rest of its content, the act calls for cooperation with China in areas of common interest, especially climate change.

That both acts are expected to pass the vote by the two chambers with full bipartisan support only serves to show how much the country's top legislature has surrendered its independence and professionalism to a Cold War mindset that should have no place in the modern world.

As Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong cautioned at a forum hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce last week, it is a mindset that risks "a clash" in which everything could be lost as neither country "is going to curl up and die".

That's why, speaking at the Munich Security Conference "China Session" event in Beijing on Tuesday via video link, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi stressed that China's development should be perceived as progress for the whole world rather than a threat.

Saying that different social systems do not make countries rivals, he urged all countries to be alert to those attempting to segment the world in the name of multilateralism or trying to form cliques on ideological lines.

Although he did not mention any specific country, he did not need to, as it is clear which country is the largest source of uncertainties.

But the US needs to accept the fact that it cannot turn back the clock, and that China is what it is. It is not going to be a vassal of the US whatever US lawmakers may think.