Washington a frog in the well: China Daily editorial

Antithetical to a letter published by The Washington Post on July 3 titled "China is not an enemy", an open letter released last week urged the president of the United States to stay the course on countering China.

By playing up the ideological differences between the two countries, the letter published in the Journal of Political Risk, signed by more than 100 former US military officials, as well as scholars, professors, think tank members and some China watchers, portrays China as an adversary and threat to the US.

What the letter listed as the reasons for the US to delink with China is nothing new, and can be attributed to the Cold War mentality, zero-sum game and hegemonic thinking of the signatories.

China's political system is different from that of the US. And the signatories to this letter believe that the two different ideologies will not be able to maintain a harmonious relationship without having a cold war or even a hot war.

However, the economic cooperation between the two countries in the past several decades, which has benefitted the development of both, belies such a hypothesis.

In the letter, China's plan for national rejuvenation and the Belt and Road Initiative as well as what China has done in the South China Sea to defend its own territorial integrity are described as the country's efforts to establish a new world order and exert itself as a new hegemonic power.

In their logic, China has no right to develop, or at least no right to develop its overall national strength enough for some in the US to consider it as a threat to the US. In their opinion, China's prosperity is at the cost of the US and its rise poses a threat to the national security of the US.

However, that is not the case. Back in 1979 when the two countries established diplomatic relations, China was a toddler and the US an adult in terms of economic development. China was the one that had to grow up.

It is natural for China to have plans for further development. It is only hegemonic thinking for some in the US to think that no country has the right to outperform and outpace the US.

What the development of Sino-US relations in the past several decades has proved is that both countries benefit from cooperation and both suffer from confrontation.

The impact of the trade frictions between the two countries on the development of the world economy also indicates that how Sino-US relations fare has a bearing on the situation of the entire world.

Those who have signed this letter and those with similar sentiments need to think twice, as worsening Sino-US relations, even confrontation, will be disastrous for both countries and the world.