Remarks on Sino-Us Colloquium Ix

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We live in interesting times.

2015 has been a busy year, filled with political challenges and international incidents, from sunken ferries and disappearing planes to the Ebola outbreak and mass protests, from the bloody rise of ISIS, the Ukraine crisis, and the terrorist attacks in Paris, to the Iran Nuclear Deal, the migrant crisis, and the uncertain integrity of the European Union. I would say that we live not only in interesting times, we live in dangerous times.

But 2015, ladies and gentlemen, is now history. 2016 is the future. What will this New Year bring? What can we expect from the next 11 months? Will the world be safe?

We live, today, in an increasingly interconnected and turbulent world, where traditional and non-traditional security challenges have appeared one after the other. Indeed, in today’s world, modern warfare does not always take on a military coat, and the economy, the environment, politics, technology, and health all have security implications that must be considered. We face increasingly complex problems, and we must respond by expanding our breadth and acuity of our vision, as well as the sensitivity and depth of our concern.

Given all these issues, it is high time that China, the second largest economy, and the United States, the largest economy and most powerful country, join hands, and begin to tackle all of these challenges. The Sino-U.S. relationship is, after all, the most important bilateral relationship in the world, a bedrock of global prosperity that impacts the well-being of billions of people around the world.

In 2015, the two countries took the whole world by surprise when they issued a common stance on climate change and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. We addressed, together, a common foe and challenge of the human race. There is no reason why we cannot do this again in 2016, against other predicaments.

Nevertheless, other events of 2015 have raised concerns about the health of the Sino-U.S. relationship. We have seen tension, among other things, over cybersecurity, the remilitarization of Japan, and the South China Sea. The Obama administration is pursuing a “Pivot to Asia”, and has sent its warships through waters China claims as its own. On the other hand, some observers often argue that China is no longer maintaining its decades long “Tao Guang Yang Hui” (韬光养晦) approach (meaning “not to show off one’s capability but to keep a low profile”), and has adopted a more assertive foreign policy, supported by its behavior in recent territorial disputes. It is no secret that some people in each country view the other often through a lens of suspicion and distrust.

China and the United States, after all, do have fundamental differences. The two countries subscribe