President Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with US National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon before their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, May 27, 2013. [Photo by Wu Zhiyi/China Daily]

President Xi Jinping told visiting White House National Security Advisor Tom Donilon that, in his meeting with President Obama at Sunnylands, California, early next month, he would explore with Obama an unprecedented "new type of great power relationship" which would inspire posterity.

Unprecedented as far back as Thucydides who wrote about the Peloponnesian War as caused by the fear that a powerful Athens instilled in Sparta. The United States, today's established power, really need not fear China's rise because it is peaceful. The encounter need not lead to war. Instead, cooperation would be beneficial to both and to the world. Hopefully, in the long run, this could lead to worldwide cooperation to deal with global challenges.

I have argued on several occasions why this is so. China is not the former Soviet Union and, as such, has no designs on hegemony. It does not want to overturn the world order dominated by the United States.

In his New York Times article "Giants, But Not Hegemons", Zbigniew Brezezinski wrote that he did not believe we would see any wars for global domination in the current post-Hegemonic Age. He cited the following reasons: "Nuclear weapons make hegemonic wars too destructive, and thus victory meaningless. One-sided national economic triumphs cannot be achieved in the increasingly interwoven global economy without precipitating calamitous consequences for every one. Further, the populations of the world have awakened politically and are not so easily subdued, even by the most powerful. Last but not least, neither the United States nor China is driven by hostile ideologies." I am not so sure about this last point.

It is to his credit that he mentioned global political awakening. He also noted that American and Chinese societies are both open in their different ways, which offsets hostility from within each society.

Hans Binnendijk, in his article "Rethinking U.S. Security Strategy," also published in the New York Times, presented the other side of the story. He referred to the National Intelligence Council's Global Trends 2030, which envisions a world of diffused power shifting increasingly to the East and South; empowerment of new actors with access to disruptive technologies; demographic trends and greater pressure on global resources, all of which will make the world a more dangerous place.

The U.S. is facing a more challenging global landscape than ever before and has fewer national security resources with which to face it. A new U.S. strategy will either need to retrench and absorb greater risks or develop more robust partnerships in order to pick up the slack. In light of budget cuts necessitated by deficit reduction and sequestration, America's new national security strategy relies on greater burden-sharing for its allies and partners.

Binnendijk, who served as a senior director in the Clinton administration's National Security Council, advocated a "forward-partnering" approach, which was developed at the National Defense University in Washington D.C. The approach advocates continued U.S. forward-force deployment, but with a new purpose: To enable America's global partners to operate together with U.S. forces and to encourage partners to take the lead in their own neighborhoods.

The result is that Washington encourages its allies Japan and the Philippines to take on China in the belief that U.S. interests would also be served by such a course. This, however, is a potentially dangerous strategy which could backfire, with disastrous consequences.

Chuck Hegel, U.S. defense secretary, emphatically reaffirmed in Singapore the U.S. strategic rebalance to Asia-Pacific. He repeated Leon Panetta's announcement that U.S. Navy will base 60 percent of its assets in the Pacific by 2020. He added that U.S. Air Force will also allocate 60 percent of its overseas based forces to the Asia-Pacific, including the most advanced platforms such as the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. He specifically mentioned U.S. Navy's recently tested carrier based remotely piloted aircraft the X-47B. He also said that the U.S. would deploy a solid-state laser aboard the USS Ponce, and that the first of four littoral combat ships had arrived in Singapore.

Why is the U.S. doing this? The New York Times' headline says it all: U.S. would match China's moves by deploying more cutting-edge technology in Asia and the Pacific. Chuck Hegel made it clear that "the U.S. will enhance its decisive military edge well into the future."

He also repeated U.S. accusation of China's "cyber attacks" firmly denied by China. The two countries have agreed to hold regular, high level talks on how to set standards of behavior for cybersecurity and commercial espionage.

The point is that Americans need to change their Cold War mentality. Hegel did say in Singapore, a positive, constructive relationship with China also is an essential part of America's rebalance to Asia. The sincerity of that statement was questioned by Chinese Major General Yao Yunzhu, director of the Center for China-America Defense Relations at the Academy of Military Sciences.

There is no doubt that China-US relationship is the most important bilateral tie shaping the future of the world. It must be better managed. That is why the Sunnylands meeting is so important.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.ccgp-fushun.com/opinion/zhaojinglun.htm

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