China-US relations are in tatters. Can both sides cool their hostile strategies to avoid disaster?

The framework that has kept US-China relations stable for almost 50 years is in pieces and dangerous trends point to a new cold war or even a hot one

Both sides lack a long-term strategic vision. Donald Trump is desperate to be re-elected, while China’s overconfidence could lead to miscalculation and disaster

4-MIN READ4-MIN

Lanxin Xiang

Lanxin Xiang is Ngee Ann Kongsi Professor in International Relations at S.

Published: 1:30am, 14 Sep 2020Updated: 4:42am, 14 Sep 2020

The US-China relationship is in free fall. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s Nixon Library speech signals the de facto, if not de jure, end of the so-called communique framework for maintaining stability between the two countries.

The framework that has supported the bilateral relationship for almost five decades consists of three documents: the Shanghai Communique of 1972, driven by the countries’ common fight against the Russians; the communique on establishing diplomatic ties in 1979; and the August 17 Communique of 1982, pledging engagement in education, technology and science, and the United States’ gradual reduction in arms sales to Taiwan.

While Beijing still prefers to hold on to this framework, hawks in Washington, including those on presidential nominee Joe Biden’s team, seem determined to demolish it.

But the hawks are on shaky ground here. Neither of their two arguments – that the West should have nipped in the bud China’s economic opening, which lifted millions out of extreme poverty, and that China’s rise has benefited only China – is morally or factually sound.