Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore (NUS), penned an article in Lianhe Zaobao on June 30, stating that China will do everything it can to avoid conflict with the US, according to Shanghai-based news web portal New Outlook.
In the article, Zheng first stated the importance of the US-China relationship in the global world order, adding that problems in this relationship have an effect on the global community.
Zheng cited 15 examples of emerging powers challenging established powers since 1500, stating that in only four of these instances has war been avoided. The most obvious example is the German challenge to the UK's status as Europe's largest economy which caused the two World Wars of the 20th Century. There was a similar situation in Asia at the time, as Japan tried to challenge the order imposed by European colonial powers in Asia, invading its neighbors, leading to the Asian front of World War II, Zheng said.
According to Zheng, history suggests that competition for hegemony is a norm of global politics and that cooperation is anomalous and by extension war is the norm and peace is anomalous. Zheng stated that prevailing theories in the field of international relations such as power transition theory, point to the inevitability of a conflict between the US and China. He said, however, that China is doing everything in its power to resist this fate.
Read the full story at Want China Times