Trial Time

200 years ago, it is said that Napoleon made a famous prediction of China's future: let her sleep, because when she woke up, the whole world would shake it.Most of the 19th and 20th centuries, China was weak and poor, and few people thought that China would wake up soon.

Taking time to the early 1920s, Western concerns about China's rise and challenging global order for a long time seem to have become a reality.

Faced with countless destructive political movements in China, and real or potential military threats abroad, the People's Republic of China was very insecure from the beginning.Today, it is generally believed that China ’s expenditure in maintaining stability exceeds military expenditures.In fact, the Chinese Communist Party is most concerned about avoiding the collapse of China's political system.From the removal of Western mental pollution in the 1980s, to the current strict monitoring and review, the CCP has been worried that domestic stability will be replaced by chaos.

In contrast to China's profound sense of insecurity and serious concerns about domestic order, the United States has always been confident in its democratic system and global soft power.After the Cold War, the United States has always been the only superpower in the world, with excellent military strength and innovative economy.

Since the 21st century, China has jumped in the world's second largest economy.What disappoints many Americans is that China's political system has not become more like the United States.Therefore, the United States is becoming more and more worried that China may challenge the liberal international system established and leading the United States since the end of World War II.

New model

However, China and the United States seem to have changed their positions recently.Now the United States is worried that China is trying to interfere with domestic politics, while China is increasingly confident in its political system and global influence.

At the Spring Conference of the National Governor Association of the United States on February 8th on February 8, US Secretary of State Pompeo claimed that competition with China was not just a federal government. It occurred at the state and local levels.The ability of important national security functions.Pompeo depicts a terrible picture of how China penetrates the US and local politics.

A few days later, at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Pompeo, US Secretary of Defense Esper, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives Plosi all focused on their so -called China threats and called on the US European allies to compete against China.force.People can't help asking: When is the challenge of the authoritarian regime, where is the confidence in the United States?

The former deputy minister of China Foreign Ministry Fu Ying and Pelossey at the Munich Security Conference explained the change of the wind direction.In response to Pelosse's remarks on Huawei in China, Fu Ying said: Since China began to reform 40 years ago, China has introduced various Western technology Hellip; Hellip; China has maintained its political system.It is not threatened by these technologies.

Fu Ying asked: But why would Huawei's 5G technology into Western countries threatened the political system?Do you really think that the democratic system is so fragile, and a high -tech company Huawei can threaten it?

As the United States becomes increasingly insecure, China seems to be increasingly confident in its political system and culture.According to the so -called four self -confidence, the Communist Party of China requires party members, government officials, and people to have socialist roads with Chinese characteristics self -confidence, theoretical confidence, institutional confidence, and cultural confidence.

At the same time, China seems to be disappointed by its global order by the United States and even being resisted.New policies launched by China, such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the establishment of an Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, are obviously to change the existing international system so that it can better represent emerging economies.But this supplement to international order rather than alternatives has not been recognized by the United States, although many allies in the United States have supported China's efforts.

Another example of the decline in self -confidence in the United States is to close the Confucius Institute on the campus of American universities.Since the University of Maryland established the first Confucius Institute in North America in 2004, dozens of American universities and colleges cooperated with partner agencies in China to open these Chinese language and cultural learning centers.In recent years, the Confucius Institute has been controversial due to funding from the Ministry of Education and suspected of violating academic freedom.Middot, Director of the Federal Investigation Bureau; Lei Zeng said in 2018 that his institution is carefully observing these institutions.

According to data from the inside story of higher education websites, at least 10 Confucius Institutes in the United States have closed or announced the plan to close in the past year, including the Confucius Institute at the University of Maryland.

The US Defense Authorization Act 2019 prohibits the US Department of Defense from funding the institutions of the Confucius Institute, unless these institutions obtain exemption.Republican Florida Senator Rubyo and Senator Cruz, such as Cruz, have always been criticized for China to pressure China to pressure their state to close the Confucius Institute.

Is it better or worse?

Whether the Confucius Institute of the University and the Confucius in primary and secondary schools violated academic freedom and engaged in illegal activities that needed special attention to the Federal Investigation Bureau, and there were controversy.If they do have any improper behaviors, they should be punished including closure.But if they are forced to close them out of fear or doubt, this will not only hurt students who study Chinese and culture in these institutions, but also destroy the normal cultural and educational exchanges between the two countries.

If these two big powers really swap their positions, will the world become better?A sense of insecurity and an overly confident China will create more conflicts between them and bring more uncertainty to the world.

In fact, relations between the two countries have continued to deteriorate recently.On February 19, China expelled three Wall Street Journal reporters because the newspaper apologized for a column of the Asian sick husband entitled that China was the real Asian sick man during the outbreak of the coronary virus disease in 2019.This is clearly to a certain extent. The day before the US government listed the five Chinese official news media as a response to foreign envoys.

There is no doubt that these media represent the official voice of China, but why did the U.S. government spend decades to understand this?This further proves that the United States is really worried about China's growing influence.

In the continuous deterioration and subtle bilateral relations, perhaps the only highlight is that the senior leaders of both sides still seem to be committed to maintaining a firm relationship.

For example, when the assistant of President Trump considers to implement a stricter high -tech ban on China, he tweeted on February 18: As far as foreign purchases are concerned, the United States cannot become it.A place that is so difficult to do business, including the national security excuses for frequent use.

He added: We want to sell products to China and other countries.This is trade.I want China to buy our jet engine, which is the best in the world.Trump also publicly expressed his support for China to curb crown disease.

This is not the first time Trump sings against his subordinates, and the latter almost all believes that China is the national security threat of the United States.In July 2019, Trump announced at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, and announced that I would think that we would become a strategic partner.

The fascination of the United States and China is likely to be because the United States exaggerates the evaluation of China's influence and China exaggerate its actual strength. As long as the United States has become a self -confident global leader, and China continues to learn to become a responsible, suffering personThese abnormal phenomena will be corrected.But before that, the international community needed to prepare for an uncertainty that is increasingly insecure and introverted in the United States, and a more confident and strong China that may bring uncertainty to the world.

The reality is that China is still a major development country and must continue to focus on domestic development.It should converge its global ambitions to avoid doing things that exceed their own ability.At the same time, the United States must regain confidence and continue to maintain the freedomRighteous international order, promote global development and democratization to play a leading role.

Regardless of how the power structure between China and the United States change, they still need each other.The crown disease epidemic from 140 countries including China and the United States shows that multilateral cooperation, especially the cooperation between the two major powers, is still essential for global challenges.

The author is a professor of international relations and politics at the University of Barker.Original Lianjia Morning News Chinese Magazine ThinkChina (ThinkChina), the original English title is TRADING PLACES: A Confident China and An Insecure American?

Golden Shun Translation