American Scholar: Trust Is Not Necessary in Sino-US Cooperation

March 27th--Guangdong Research institute of International Strategies held the 21st Yunshan academic conference on Sino-US Relationships on the North Campus. Two experts in this field Professor Joshua Eisenman and Professor Yu Bin were invited to speak at the conference. Professor Joshua Eisenman is Senior Fellow on Chinese Studies in American Foreign Policy Council and editor of China Reform Monitor. Professor Yu Bin is a Professor of Political Science at Wittenberg University and Senior Fellow in Shanghai Association of American Studies.

Joshua began his speech ''Beyond Trust: A Modus Vivendi for US-China Cooperation'' by explaining the Latin term ''Modus Vivendi'', whose English equivalent is ''pragmatic approaches to problem-solving''. Challenging the traditional notion of trust being the basis of successful Sino-US cooperation, he stressed over and over again that ''countries don’t trust.''

He quoted the Zax and the Fighting Wolves, two domestically well-recognized children's tales from the US and China, to demonstrate fighting wastes energy and creates loopholes. ''While you are both distracted and fighting among yourselves, larger threats will grow.''

Both countries generally agree on the looming threats including militant Islamism, nuclear proliferation, climate change, environmental issues and human and drug trafficking. He pointed out the outcome of confrontation on any of these issues could be economic stagnation and catastrophe.

Recalling the past century, he pointed out that US-China successes occurred despite a lack of trust. Successes occurred because progressive and forward thinking leaders on both sides placed tangible results above idealistic and intangible issues such as ideology and mutual trust. He urged rather than focus on trust, the US and China ought to work to find creative approaches to align their mutual interests in order to achieve real results for the people of both countries.

''Over the past 40 years, the Sino-US relationship indeed has deepened, broadened and become more complex. The relationship is interwoven and mutually dependent.'' Professor Yu regards Sino-US relationship as the most important bilateral relationship in the 21st century.

Professor Yu's presentation ''United States and China: Politics of Asymmetries'' explored how Chinese and American people conceptualize political terms such as power and leadership. These disparities in idea and culture create perceptions or misperceptions, which eventually guilt Chinese and American people. This causes them to respond differently to the same political event. He generalized Chinese people as being secular and reflective, a people who enjoy slow motion (such as Taiji), study too much and like to save money. Americans, on the contrary, are forward-thinking, enjoy high speed, study too little (compared with Chinese) and are inclined to spend money.

People from China and the US share very different views on political terms. He gave an example of the term ''strategic''. The term is specifically used by Americans for ''ally who is neither friend or foe'' while Chinese use ''strategic'' to indicate an incident that has great influence, such as ''strategically important''.

Source: GDUFS News Website