Beijing, Washington embark on new era of cooperation

More politicians in the United States are gradually becoming interested in Beijing's goal of building "a new type of great power relationship between China and the United States", according to a Chinese think tank.

"The road is tortuous, but the future is bright," said the Blue Book of the United States 2013, an annual report released by the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on Monday.

"After the meeting between President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Barack Obama in California in June, we found more US politicians showing an interest in the concept of a new type of great power relationship, such as US Secretary of State John Kerry and some officials from the US Department of Defense. They are also considering how to build a new type of relationship with China," said Huang Ping, director-general of the institution.

The two-day summit between Xi and Obama at Sunnylands in June reaffirmed the two countries' commitment to exploring and establishing a new relationship based on equality, mutual trust and win-win cooperation.

Tao Wenzhao, a scholar of US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the idea had barely been considered by US politicians before the summit. During the first meeting between Xi and Obama, the idea was clearly expounded between the two leaders, and it was further promoted in the fifth China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue in July.

"China-US relations are complicated. Even though the new type of great power relationship cannot reduce the complexity, it can help the two countries to overcome more new challenges in developing the relationship," Tao said.

According to the report, the first decade of the 21st century was the golden era for China's development. When the US advocated a new strategy, shifting its center of gravity to the Asia Pacific in recent years, the Sino-US relationship came to a new juncture.

The future of bilateral relations is likely to maintain overall stability, while it will also face increasing challenges, since the US is simultaneously defining China as a competitor and a partner, the report said.

The fundamental solution to the new challenges in the two countries' relationship is to build a new type of great power relationship between China and US, it said.

zhaoyanrong@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/23/2013 page11)