By Shannon Tiezzi
Recent pessimism suggests that China and the U.S. are already well on the road to great power confrontation.
Even as the U.S. and China put on happy faces for their annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue, recent articles in U.S. newspapers suggest that the relationship has taken a major (and perhaps irreversible) turn for the worse.
At the New York Times, Jane Perlez cites Chinese and American sources who agree that Xi Jinping is making decisions almost unilaterally, according to his vision for China’s future. And Xi’s “Chinese dream,” according to Perlez, means moving “to challenge American primacy in the Asia-Pacific region and establish a China-centric alternative.” Xi’s aggressive moves and U.S. pushback have soured cooperation on major issues to the extent that there’s little optimism for progress at this week’s S&ED.
Over at The Washington Post, Simon Denyer paints a similarly gloomy picture. Denyer outlines the strategic insecurities between the two countries, as China sees a growing web of U.S. containment and Washington believes Beijing has its sights set on an unchallenged position as regional hegemon. “There have been more intense crises in U.S.-China relations, including the fallout from the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre of pro-democracy protesters, but none, perhaps, as fundamental and structural as this,” Denyer writes.
Read the full story at The Diplomat