By Zachary Keck
Trust is a rare commodity in international politics, and Beijing and Washington aren’t likely to be an exception.
“There is a low level of strategic trust between the United States and China, which could make bilateral relations more turbulent,” warned a recent report (PDF) jointly issued by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Beijing-based China Strategic Culture Promotion Association (CSCPA).
It was hardly the first such report to assess that the U.S. and China fundamentally distrust one another. Two years ago, Wang Jisi and Kenneth G. Lieberthal wrote a report for the Brookings Institution that warned, “Although both Beijing and Washington consider the U.S.-China relationship to be the most important in the world, distrust of each other’s long term intentions (‘strategic distrust’) has grown to a dangerous degree.” Two years before that, in 2008, Phillip Saunders spoke of the need (PDF) to enhance trust between the U.S. and China; an argument picked up recently by Chinese academics and the foreign minister.
Although it would be preferable if the two countries trusted one another, this is an unrealistic goal. The U.S. and China are right to distrust one another and this won’t change anytime soon. Therefore, the goal should be to find ways to manage the bilateral relationship without strategic trust.
Read the full story at The Diplomat