It's time to control and manage disparities

To control and manage are seemingly the top priorities for handling the differences between China and the United States.

Over the past years, both countries have managed to maintain a comprehensively stable relationship despite the increasing number of structural frictions, even confrontations, on the economic and military fronts. In the economic field, the trade imbalance, the renminbi's exchange rate and non-economic factors hindering mutual investment have become major problems. On the military front, Washington remains suspicious of Beijing's strategic developments, more than once challenging the Chinese government's legal reclamation projects in the South China Sea and introduction of the Air Defense Identification Zone over the East China Sea.

And in terms of freedom of navigation and aviation, the US has repeatedly questioned China's sovereignty over its islets and reefs in the East and South China seas.