China and the United States: Rivals or Partners?

US Presidential National Security Advisor Sullivan visited China from August 27 to 29, and China and the United States held a new round of strategic communication in Beijing. During his meeting with Sullivan on August 29, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed that China and the United States should first clarify whether the two countries are rivals or partners.

China has always hated and even rejected the idea of ​​Sino-US competition and has repeatedly stressed that the two countries should be “partners rather than rivals.”

But Washington policymakers don’t think so. At the start of its term in 2021, the Biden administration singled out a “growing rivalry with China” as one of the major challenges facing the United States. “It is the only competitor (China) potentially capable of combining its economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to mount a lasting challenge to a stable and open international system.”

At the recent Democratic National Convention, both current President Biden and Democratic presidential nominee Harris explicitly mentioned and emphasized the competition between the United States and China. In his convention speech on August 19, President Biden said, “When I took office, the conventional wisdom was that China would inevitably overtake the United States. If you haven’t noticed, no one is saying that today.” On August 22, Harris bluntly stated, “I will ensure that America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century; and that we strengthen, not abdicate, our global leadership.”

Given the record of the first Trump administration, it is very likely that if he returns to the White House, he will pursue a policy of competition, if not confrontation, towards China. It must be acknowledged that there is now a bipartisan consensus within Washington policy circles that China must be considered a major rival.

However, the United States cannot afford to abandon its cooperation with China. Indeed, as the most powerful and influential country in the world, it is now forced to cooperate to a certain extent in the face of increasingly complex international affairs. Moreover, although the trade war broke out between the United States and China under the Trump administration, the annual trade volume between the two countries has shown a downward trend. The total trade volume in 2023 is still quite high.

US data show that total imports from China in 2023 amounted to $427.24 billion, the lowest level since 2012; US exports to China reached $147.81 billion, marking the third highest record in history. Chinese data for the same year show that the total trade volume between China and the United States was $664.451 billion, with a trade surplus of $336.131 billion in China's favor.

This is why the Biden administration has repeatedly stressed that while competition with China is an objective reality, it must be healthy and fair. It believes that the world needs the United States and China to manage their competition responsibly to prevent it from escalating into conflict, confrontation, or a new Cold War.

The United States, the world's leading power for decades, naturally does not want to see its position replaced by that of another country. That is why Washington has made a habit of defining its potential adversaries as rivals, even when they are its allies. For example, when Japan's economy grew rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s, the United States launched a trade war against Japan to slow its growth. Similarly, when the development of European allies threatens American interests or when they demonstrate sufficient independence, Washington also tends to repress them.

The fact that the United States views other countries in terms of competition is nothing new. Any country or international actor capable of challenging the United States can be viewed by Washington as a rival, especially China, a country ruled by the Communist Party and widely recognized as the world's second-largest power. This is the inevitable attitude of an established power toward an emerging power.

It is increasingly clear, however, that without China’s participation and cooperation, the United States and its allies cannot solve some global challenges, such as climate change, on their own. That is why we noted that during his meeting with President Xi Jinping on August 29, Sullivan explicitly stated that President Biden looked forward to speaking with the Chinese leader by phone in the coming weeks.

It is obvious that cooperation between the United States and China is indispensable. This may be the fundamental reason why Beijing constantly insists that the two countries are partners. In traditional Chinese culture, there are strong ideas such as “harmony without uniformity,” “harmonious coexistence” and “the beauty of shared harmony.” In contemporary China, five principles govern international relations, namely mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. Beijing prefers to view international relations from the perspective of cooperation. Even if there are conflicts between the United States and China, Beijing is not willing to label bilateral relations as conflictual.

In addition, China and the US may have different understandings of what a “rival” is. As a new emerging power with a strong sense of confidence, China hopes that the international community will respect its vision, both for itself and for the world. When its development is pressured by the US, China tends to see it as Washington's attempt to curb its rise. Therefore, when the US talks about engaging in a rules-based competition with China, China feels that it is being targeted by Washington.

Beijing does not appreciate Washington calling the two countries rivals at all, saying the term “partners” would be more appropriate. However, in American political terminology, “partner” generally means a friend or ally, and since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, China has never been considered a friend by the United States, much less an ally.

In fact, whether China and the US are regarded as rivals or partners, the bilateral relationship is an objective reality that will not change in substance due to differences in labels. In a world where cooperation is inevitable, it is more important for Washington and Beijing to approach specific issues in a pragmatic and rational manner. The more concrete problems are resolved, the more harmonious the bilateral relationship will be and the better the world as a whole will function.

First published in Tehran Times