Building a new type of Sino-US relationship

During his meeting with President Xi Jinping last month, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson conveyed US President Donald Trump's wish to forge China-US relations for the next 50 years. More important, Tillerson said bilateral ties should be based on the principles of "no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation". The principles are part of the "new type of major-country relationship" Xi proposed to former US president Barack Obama as the future paradigm of China-US ties at their meeting in Sunnylands, California, in 2013.

The Obama administration's response to the proposal was mixed. It did not oppose the idea, even agreed to it at times. But most of the time, the Obama administration avoided using the term. For instance, the immediate response of Obama at the Sunnylands meeting was, "the two countries shall make new cooperation".

That is why some US policymakers were perplexed by Tillerson's use of China's idea to define future Beijing-Washington relations. For quite some time, US policymakers have stuck to so-called political correctness by distancing themselves from any Chinese attempt to frame bilateral relations, possibly because China has persistently asked the United States to honor its commitment to the three joint communiqu��s.