Peking University professor Wang Jisi joined Scott Kennedy, trustee chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on April 17 to discuss their report, “Breaking the Ice: The Role of Scholarly Exchange in Stabilizing U.S.-China Relations."
The report "summarizes their trips to the U.S. and China during the pandemic and offers policy recommendations on how to revitalize ties between the two societies," CSIS states in a report that includes a link to a video of the event.
Wang Jisi, founding president of Peking University's Institute of International and Strategic Studies (IISS) and one of China’s leading authorities on U.S.-China relations, opened the discussion.
The discussion was moderated by John Holden, trustee chair senior associate and managing director and head of China practice at McLarty Associates. Susan Shirk of the 21st Century China Center at UC San Diego, Jia Qingguo of Peking University, and Paul Triolo of Albright Stonebridge Group also participated in the discussion.
“The argument is basically that whether we’re friends or foes, ignorance isn’t a good tactic to figure out how to deal with the other,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy said an argument that U.S.-China relations worsened was due to failed hopes that letting China into the World Trade Organization (WTO) would lead it to become a free-market democracy.
He’s since heard that China’s GDP is roughly 65% to 70% of the United States GDP. In the mid-1980s, when Japan’s GDP was roughly at that level, the U.S. turned on Japan, he said.
Both arguments have a similar foundation, which is China has done nothing wrong, Kennedy said. The rest of the world doesn’t agree, but China wouldn’t know the concerns without in-person meetings.
Insufficient travel creates echo chambers in Beijing and Washington that feeds a vicious cycle in the relationship that leads each to believe the other has the worst motives, Kennedy said.
He recommended more U.S.-China flights. The Russia-Ukraine war and the inability of American airlines to fly over Russia using the polar route makes that difficult, he said.
“We need much more dialogue between the two governments, with administrative and legislative officials traveling to each other’s countries," Kennedy said.
The countries need to restore connections between journalists, tourists, businesspeople, scholars and families, he said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and some American financial officials' plans to visit China is a good sign, Kennedy said.
“The ability to reduce the risk of war to get agreement on issues of dispute between the two countries much more difficult because if there’s so much good stress, so much hostility, it robs the other side of any motivation to actually make compromises in order to get agreements,” Shirk said.
Both sides need to make transparent their travel rules, she said.
Chinese university administrators need to remove the obstacles to collaborative social science and humanities research on China and U.S. China relations, Shirk said.
“I think they have a useful role to play in terms of enabling people of both countries too get a better sense of what’s going on in the other country, and also ... that’s a basis for formulating good policies, sensible policies,” Jia Qingguo said.
