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US-China relations
ChinaDiplomacy

US-China relations: Beijing takes pointers from Mao in protracted power struggle with US

  • After years of pushing mutual respect and cooperation, Chinese diplomats are now demanding ‘fair competition’ from Washington
  • Mao Zedong’s decades-old advice on how to deal with a failing Japanese empire has new relevance for the party’s new generation

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Illustration: Henry Wong
Catherine Wong

China and the US have been at loggerheads on almost all fronts, but with tensions continuing into the Joe Biden presidency, where is the relationship heading? After US deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman’s visit to Tianjin last week, and the Washington debut of China’s new envoy to the US Qin Gang, this series aims to check the temperature of bilateral relations. In this article, Catherine Wong looks into how Beijing is reviewing and adjusting its US policy.

For the Chinese Communist Party’s promising young cadres, a book of Mao Zedong’s speeches delivered during the country’s resistance against Japan in World War II has become required reading at the Central Party School.

On Protracted War details Mao’s theory on how to wage an asymmetric struggle against a bigger power and its main message – abandon illusions and prepare the nation for a protracted conflict – is also what President Xi Jinping demands today from his diplomats.
‘On Protracted War’ by Mao Zedong has become required reading for China’s young Communist Party cadres. Photo: Handout
‘On Protracted War’ by Mao Zedong has become required reading for China’s young Communist Party cadres. Photo: Handout
The book’s new-found relevance among Chinese officials as a guide to how to handle the nation’s most pressing modern challenges can be traced directly to the increasingly bitter rivalry between Beijing and Washington. Just as Mao concluded that China would eventually prevail over the declining empire of Japan, Xi and his officials regard the US as in inevitable decline, and proclaimed that “the East is rising”.

For years, China defined relations with the US through its maxim of a “new model of major country relations”, hoping that principles like “no conflict or confrontation”, “mutual respect” and “win-win cooperation” could provide a framework for maintaining stable ties with Washington and prevent the inevitable scenario of great power rivalry.

But China-sceptic sentiment during Barack Obama’s presidency turned into a full-blown trade war under Donald Trump, and the rivalry has continued under President Joe Biden, with conflicts spilling over into virtually all aspects of relations and showing no signs of easing.
SCMP Series
China and the US: where is the relationship heading?
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