Wang Weinan
On September 30, the House of Representatives of the U.S. Parliament issued the final report of the Chinese group.The report shows that the United States' democracy and Republican parties involved in many issues involving China, such as epidemic, human rights, intellectual property, fake news, military expansion, bullied other countries, Hong Kong issues, Taiwan's security, and unfair trade.The greatest wealth transfer and other aspects all show high consistency, all of which have strong condemnation of the Chinese Communist regime, and called on the US government to vigorously strengthen military power construction to cope with China's military power improvement.After this situation, China and the United States have been unavoidable.
This wave of Chinese and American confrontations is not sudden, but the Asia -Pacific rebalancing strategy brewed during the period of former President Obama's administration, and fully launched in 2018 a year after President Trump took office.
The Chinese group reports in the House of Representatives are more like a systematic summary of the House of Representatives for more than two years.The House of Representatives is equivalent to the House of Commons of the United States. Members are directly elected by American voters according to the population ratio. Therefore, it is the most popular political institution that can represent American public opinion and the most capable of shaping American public opinion.This report from China was released by the House of Representatives, and its negative impact on Sino -US relations is self -evident.
Although the basic situation of continued confrontation between Sino -US relations has been clear, what is the essence of Sino -US confrontation is still in dispute.At present, some people think that it is a pure geopolitical conflict, some people think that it is ideological conflict, and some people think it is a civilized conflict.
Those who regard Sino -US confrontation as a pure geopolitical conflict look at this problem mainly from the perspective of international power and the scope of power.The core of geopolitical competition is the influence of related countries, especially the influence of military and diplomatic levels, expansion or contraction of geographical space.For a long time, the special relationship between the United States and Latin America, the special relationship between Russia and Central Asian countries, and even the special relationship between the European Union and the North African countries are classic cases of geopolitical theory.
In recent years, with the enhancement of China's economic and military strength, it has indeed become more and more shape -shaped in the Asia -Pacific region, and it has become more and more shape -shaped, and through the Belt and Road Initiative (international public opinion is more strategic)It has different economic and political influence on Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and even Europe and Latin America.
As the only superpower after the Cold War, the influence has widened all over the world.The relative increase in China's influence on a country or region means a relatively decline in the influence of the United States on that country or region.This is a zero -sum game that you have to lose and you win me. It is difficult to have a win -win results.Therefore, it is indeed very convincing to treat Sino -US confrontation as a geopolitical conflict.
The discussion of Sino -US confrontation as ideological conflicts is mainly focused on the fundamental differences and conflicts of the respective guidance ideas and basic systems of the two countries.For example, whether it is the Chinese Constitution or the Communist Party Constitution of the Communist Party of China, Marxism -Leninism is stipulated that Marxism -Leninism is the guiding ideology of Chinese political life, and Marxism -Leninism finally eliminates capitalism around the world and realizes communism as its historical mission.
Capitalism is the foundation of the country in the United States and even the entire Western world. It is considered the best way to create wealth, and even socialist mutant social democrats recognize this.In addition, there are obvious differences in the subjective understanding and practical form of basic political values such as democracy, freedom, equality, and human rights.
The basic institutional arrangement of a country is founded in its guiding ideology and is a concrete practice of these ideology.
The basic political system in the United States is the separation of legislation, administration, and judicially to check and balance each other. As the fourth power, the media also has some check -balances on political power.The Democratic Party and Republican Party took turns to govern through competition.
China often criticizes US politics as money politics, and the United States often accuses China of being a party dictatorship.Regardless of the emotional colors of these titles, they do reflect the fundamental differences and mutual rejection of China and the United States in the basic political system.
The Chinese and American civilization conflict theory was born in the 1990s, and the theory of civilization conflict of American political scientist Huntington.The main point of view includes: the root cause of international conflicts in the future will be mainly cultural, not ideological and economical. The main conflict of global politics will be carried out between different civilizations and groups.Put forward challenges.
It is confusing that Huntington excludes ideology from the connotation of civilization or culture, but according to the basic consensus of the contemporary Chinese academic community, ideology and values are the core elements of culture, the basic system is the form of cultural expression, the utensils and utensils are the utensils and utensils isCulture external carrier.There are also Western scholars that the broad culture refers to people's lifestyle, and this definition is even more complicated.
According to Huntington's interpretation of the theory of civilization, and his prediction of Sino -US relations based on the theory, the current Sino -US confrontation seems to also belong to the category of civilization conflict he defined, that is, the conflict between Western civilization and Confucian civilization.But the current Sino -US confrontation is not limited to the civilized conflict he defined.
As mentioned earlier, geopolitical conflicts and ideological conflicts are all obvious features of the current Sino -US confrontation.This wave of China and the United States in China and the United States in China -US economic and trade conflicts. The recent situation of China -US science and technology decoupled in the recent period also belongs to the scope of economic and trade, so the current Sino -US confrontation also has obvious economic attributes.This exceeded Huntington's theory of civilization.
It can be seen that the current Sino -US confrontation is all -round, which involves both geopolitics and ideology and differences in cultural or civilized; not only in high -political fields such as diplomacy and security, but also in the low -political fields such as economic and society.Essence
If Huntington's definition of culture or civilization is expanded and incorporated into ideology, production and lifestyle, etc., then use civilized conflicts to define the nature of the current Sino -US confrontation, which is basically in line with.
The author is the executive deputy director of the Taiwan Research Center of Shanghai Jiaotong University in China
