Interview: Both sides can benefit from cooperation between the United States and China - Interview with American scholar Joseph Nye | Reporter | United States
Aspen, USA, July 25th (Xinhua) - Both sides can benefit from cooperation between the United States and China - Interview with American scholar Joseph Nye
Xinhua News Agency reporter Deng Xianlai
Joseph Nye, an American political scholar and proposer of the concept of "soft power," recently stated in an interview with Xinhua News Agency in Aspen, Colorado, that the United States and China share common interests and should cooperate, and both sides can benefit from it. If the two countries demonstrate cooperation, their perception of each other will change.
Joseph Nye said that the United States and China are both great powers, and both sides should establish a guiding framework for their relationship. On the one hand, they should set restrictions on competition, and on the other hand, they should seek potential areas of cooperation. "This should be our direction of effort.".
He pointed out that if both the United States and China blindly emphasize that the other is a threat, then this argument will become increasingly reinforced. If we demonstrate cooperation, the 'conceptual atmosphere' in Washington and Beijing will change.
After obtaining a PhD in Political Science from Harvard University in 1964, Joseph Nye stayed on to work in teaching and research, and served as the Dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He entered the US government twice in the 1970s and 1990s, serving in the State Department, National Intelligence Commission, and Department of Defense, primarily responsible for US national security affairs.
Joseph Nye repeatedly emphasized in interviews that there is no end to US China relations, and as two major powers, the US and China will coexist for a long time without the so-called "victory" of one side defeating the other. He believes that in order to control the US China relationship, the two countries need to further strengthen their contact based on more than two years of mutual contact.
The two heads of state have instructed the work teams of both countries to promptly follow up and implement the important consensus they have reached, take practical actions, and promote the return of China US relations to a stable development track. Joseph Nye pointed out that this is very important.
Recently, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Yellen and President's Special Envoy for Climate Issues John Kerry visited China successively. Joseph Nye said that while it is important for senior US government officials to visit China intensively and enhance exchanges and communication with China, a few visits alone cannot immediately reverse US China relations. "I think we should be able to turn the situation around for a longer period of time."
During Antony Blinken's visit to China, China and the United States reached a consensus, agreed to encourage the expansion of cultural and educational exchanges between the two countries, and actively discussed the increase of passenger flights between China and the United States. Joseph Nye believed that this was the first step taken by both sides in the right direction.
