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US-China relations
ChinaDiplomacy

China, US tensions unlikely to ease but they could maintain ‘a hot peace’, foreign policy adviser says

  • Domestic agendas ‘may or may not work to lessen the strain’ this year, according to Wang Jisi from Peking University
  • But he says Chinese and American businesses remain deeply integrated and most ‘are not embracing the idea of decoupling’

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The next stage of the China-US relationship won’t be “easy sailing” but there are incentives on both sides to keep it manageable, according to foreign policy specialist Wang Jisi. Photo: Reuters
Teddy Ng
Domestic politics is likely to push Beijing and Washington towards more confrontation this year and it will be difficult to ease tensions, according to a senior Chinese foreign policy adviser.

But Wang Jisi, who is also president of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies at Peking University, said the two nations could still maintain “a hot peace” – meaning that there may be heated exchanges and rivalry but they would not escalate the situation.

“The domestic agendas of the United States and China in 2022 may or may not work to lessen the strain,” Wang wrote in an article titled “The hot peace paradigm”, published on the China-US Focus website last week.

He said US President Joe Biden would be under fire at home if his administration moved away from confrontation with China before the 2022 midterm elections. And he also expected Beijing to show stronger resolve to resist US challenges to its legitimacy and authority in the run-up to the Communist Party national congress in autumn.

“Therefore, the next stage of the China-US relationship is not going to be easy sailing. Yet there are enough incentives on both sides to remain sober-minded and keep the relationship manageable, since both are faced with imperatives at home,” he said.

Resuming economic cooperation could help ease tensions between China and the US. Photo: Bloomberg
Resuming economic cooperation could help ease tensions between China and the US. Photo: Bloomberg

Wang noted that Beijing was grappling with an economic slowdown and trying to contain the spread of Covid-19, while the pandemic and financial stability were also key issues for Washington.

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