Song Luzheng — The West will lose out if it refuses cooperation

Apart from economic challenges to the West, China is also experiencing a new development mode based on a different political institution, which is making the Capitalist West uneasy.…

China and the United States have what are called "structural conflicts," in that Washington wishes to dominate the world for at least another one century, while Beijing is not prepared to be pushed around – meaning there has to be a winner.…

Before 2008, China and the West did achieve a win-win situation to a certain extent. Chinese industrial products lowered Western living costs while their export stimulated China's growth. Earlier, when China started its reform and opening-up, Western capital and technology helped Chinese industries to develop, and in exchange, the West found new markets and a new place for industrial transfer. 

But such win-win cooperation was not able to continue after 2008, when China's success started to have more profound economic impact. In the changed circumstances, the West and China need to find a new way to achieve win-win results. 

However, this has to be based on two preconditions: 

First, the West has to understand its political institutions cannot be implanted in China; the latter will continue with its proven-successful development pattern different from the West. If the West cannot accept this, or seeks to impose its ideology on China, conflict will be inevitable. 

Second, China has to show through actions that its rise will be different than that of Japan or Germany in the past, meaning it will not seek to challenge or even overturn the current international order. Participation and sharing are China's objectives.…

China's rise has changed the geopolitical pattern. The world is entering a fluctuating period of adjustment during which turmoil may occur. Both China and the West have to accept the fact, and treat the great historical transition in practical ways. Both sides need to solve their own internal problems, and reform the current international order. Only in this way is a win-win result possible.

China.org.en
The West will lose out if it refuses cooperation

Song Luzheng | research fellow at the Shanghai Chunqiu Institute