CRI听力:Senior Chinese diplomat calls on US to abandon 'power politics'

A leading Chinese diplomat has told an audience in the US state of Pennsylvania that the United States should be looking toward a broader re-tooling of its foreign policy away from "power politics."

Addressing a large audience at the 2018 Penn Wharton China Summit on Saturday at the University of Pennsylvania, senior Chinese diplomat Fu Ying, Vice Chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress, says the China-U.S. relationship has witnessed profound changes over the past few decades, with both sides gaining from cooperation, but also encountering difficulties.

She says the broader question being asked is where the Trump administration wants to take bilateral relations.

"The US has become increasingly concerned about China, defining China as a strategic competitor which, presumably, is challenging the US interests and the US influence, and erodes the US security and prosperity. And now, in the past few weeks, the US is threatening tough trade measures against China, putting more strains on our relationship."

Fu Ying does concede that China's rapid economic development and political influence is starting to make a growing number of Americans worried.

She suggests the Trump administration needs to assess its policies toward China, suggesting the Chinese people are not "feeling the gravitational force of the 'Thucydides Trap'" with the US.

"With a sense of equanimity, we are convinced that China-US cooperation is in the fundamental interests of both our two countries and conducive to world peace and development."

Fu Ying says while "peace and prosperity" has always been the goal of the Chinese nation, that peace needs to be defended with adequate capabilities.

Citing Chinese President Xi Jinping's keynote speech at this year's Boao Forum for Asia, Fu Ying says the US side should be moving to try to embrace China’s new policies and measures to further open up its markets to the rest of the world. 

"China and the US have been important partners to each other over the years. It is in the interest of both sides to maintain this partnership and find mutually acceptable solutions to our differences. We stand to gain working together. We would both lose should we enter into confrontation, be it for trade or for any other matters."

Fu Ying's opinions have been echoed by Geoffrey Garrett, Dean of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, a leading US business school and US President Donald Trump's Alma Mater.

"It's true that China and America are different. The most important thing we can all do is to ensure that the differences between China and the United States are source of strength, source of economic growth, and source of business opportunity, not a source of conflict. The best way to make that history is through more engagement, more understanding, more business-to-business ties, more cultural understanding, so more engagement is just the right path for us in the most important relationship in the 21st century. "

Garrett has also taken time to laud China's growing role in global affairs, noting that the country - in just the last 20-years - has been able to evolve from a low-cost manufacturer to one of the leading engines of global economic growth through innovation.