Prospects

For China and the United States, whether they can establish a relationship of common prosperity depends on whether they can build strategic mutual trust. The recent series of actions by the two countries were all conducted based on this goal.

For instance, the second round of the Sino-U.S. Consultation on People-to-People Exchange held in Washington, D.C. in April was aimed at this. The S&ED was aimed at this. The coming visits of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden to China and Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping to the United States will also aim to accomplish this task.

Frequent exchanges in a wide range of fields can contribute to a true cooperative partnership. However, this will not be easy. What China and the United States will create is a new type of partnership in the 21st century featuring long-term peace and cooperation between two countries with different political systems, ideologies, and stages of development. There is neither experience to learn from nor examples to follow. This is destined to be a complex and difficult process.

The author is deputy director of the Institute of American Studies of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations