By Euhwa Tran
Are increased tensions between the two countries the ‘new normal’?
The U.S.-China relationship is arguably one of the most important—if not the most important—bilateral relationships in the world. The presidents of both countries have made statements to this effect, not to mention similar pronouncements by countless other officials and scholars from the two nations. But in spite of this professed interdependence, a recent spate of publications by U.S. think tanks on the bilateral relationship have all been negative in nature, calling for a toughening of U.S. policy towards China.
David Shambaugh has publicly pointed out this trend, labeling the current situation in U.S.-China relations—that of increased tension between the two countries—as the “new normal.” “Hardly a day passes when one does not open the newspaper to read of more—and serious—friction. This is the ‘new normal,’” Shambaugh declared, “and both sides had better get used to it—rather than naively professing a harmonious relationship that is not achievable.”
Generally well known and often-cited polling data show that the U.S. public is largely in agreement with U.S. experts’ pervasive negativity towards China. A periodic Gallup survey, for example, asks Americans which country they consider to be the United States’ “greatest enemy.” Since 2008, China has consistently placed in the top three and topped the list of responses last year, putting it ahead of Russia, Iran, and North Korea. In other words, a significant number of Americans consider China—the country with whom the United States has arguably the most important bilateral relationship—to be on par with and sometimes even more antagonistic than North Korea, a nation with whom the United States has no diplomatic or economic relations and that regularly threatens the U.S. with impending “final doom.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat