Unlocking strategic competition

China should persist in cultivating a favorable neighboring environment and concentrate resources on core interests

China faces uncertainties in its diplomacy. Its relations with the United States and some neighboring states are "locked" in strategic competition, territorial and other maritime disputes. And some say China faces the so-called Thucydides trap, or the inevitable clash between a rising power and an existing one, which applies first on the ocean, where the majority of the structural competition and potential confrontations are.

Concerning China's relationship with the US, one basic fact is that the two countries are neither pure adversaries nor companions. Competition, confrontation, coordination and cooperation are all elements that define how the biggest, fast-growing developing country and the most powerful developed country interact with each other. Both countries need to know that any misunderstanding or misjudgment about each other's intentions and interests would result in heavy common losses, so they must give up any strategic flippancy or a radical reaction that makes the other feel it is being compelled.