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China would be wrong to write off the US, Communist Party history expert warns
- The US’ role as global leader may be declining, but it is resilient enough to bounce back, ex-deputy chief of Party History Research Centre tells forum in Sanya
- China needs to balance opening up and safeguarding national interests, Zhang Baijia says, as he warns against an ‘inward’ shift
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The US is capable of strongly overcoming all challenges and China should not bet against it, a Communist Party academic has advised.
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Zhang Baijia, a former deputy director of the Party History Research Centre, also called on China to carefully balance its national security and opening-up goals, as he cautioned against an inward turn.
The remarks from Zhang come at a time of rising concerns over tensions between the world’s two largest economies, and as China’s state media loudly underlines the country’s superior strategy against Covid-19 relative to the West.
“The US’ role as a global leader is declining but, from historical experience, the US is also a country with a strong capacity for self-regulation. So it needs to be seen whether there will be an adjustment in the United States in the future,” Zhang told an economic development forum in Sanya at the weekend.
Chinese state media has increasingly played up the narrative of a rising East and declining West, highlighting China’s efforts at bringing the coronavirus spread under control, even though strict measures like border closures have fuelled worries of isolation as the pandemic looks set to drag on.
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Zhang said it would be a mistake to believe that the US would set itself up to fail.
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“It is important that we do not pin the hopes for our development on the inability of the United States to solve its own problems,” he told a Sino-US relations panel, according to footage from the forum released online on Tuesday.
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