From Overseas Press

Sinologist: China, US lack long-term trust

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-07-08 09:37

Kenneth Lieberthal, a renowned American expert on China, said to Lianhe Zaobao that despite the strategic partnership, China and the United States still harbor deep suspicions about each other, which is the biggest failure in the nearly 30 years of Sino-US diplomacy.

Undated file photo of Kenneth Lieberthal, a renowned American expert on China.

Chinese and American ministry-level officials have stayed in frequent contact on a weekly basis, promoting the bilateral relationship into a "far-reaching, mature and stout, comprehensive and interdependent" strategic partnership, Lieberthal said in an exclusive interview with the Singapore-based Chinese newspaper on Tuesday. He is director of the John Thornton China Center and served as a special assistant to the president for national security affairs during the Clinton administration.

With China's rising status in the world, more and more international issues, such as climate change and nuclear nonproliferation, can't be solved without Beijing's participation. Thus cooperation between China and US is a must.

However, Lieberthal laments that both countries, haunted by conspiracy theories, lack long-term trust and are reluctant to take risks in pushing the envelope on strategic cooperation, adding to difficulties in handling the already tricky international issues. The US wants more Chinese involvement in the international arena, but China says it is not ready, fearing it might be a pretext by Washington to curb its booming economy, Lieberthal said in the interview.

Lieberthal explained that ideological conflicts might partially be to blame for the lack of trust. Furthermore, since China and US are continental countries, both nations tend to be inside-oriented, focusing on domestic affairs and not so much on international issues, thus denting their cooperation.

Still, the sinologist acknowledged that the high level of respect shown by the US government to China's international status is unprecedented.

Another issue that raised Lieberthal's concern is that Chinese people nowadays are fueled with a hyped national confidence and revel in such fantasy as China being as powerful as the US. Such mentality shot up in the wake of the financial crisis, which punched US into recession while leaving Chinese economy largely unscathed.

Policy-makers in Beijing are clear that China remains a developing country, Lieberthal said. He went on to point out that America's higher education, innovation system, first-rate enterprises as well as its established legal institutions continue to promise that it would remain the world leader.

"The gap (between China and US) is shrinking, but the disparity is still enormous," said Lieberthal, adding, "China may still wait decades before catching up."