US efforts to contain China unrealistic

The United States' containment policy against China is not realistic and it is not in its own interests, a China expert said, adding that Washington must return to diplomacy to address bilateral tensions.

"I don't think at this point that (containment policy) is a very good strategy," Susan Thornton, former US diplomat and senior fellow at Yale Law School's Paul Tsai China Center, said during a recent webinar.

Under its so-called containment policy, the US has labeled China as an adversary, and tried to isolate and contain it, she said, emphasizing that the approach is not a "positive one for the US" and it will not pay "big dividends" either.

She said the thinking among US political elites that China can be systemically weakened is not realistic, and it is not going to leave a lot of room for talks or cooperation.

It is critically important to normalize regular official meetings between Washington and Beijing, she said, warning there would be "a very dangerous escalatory security dilemma that will lead to conflict" otherwise.

"In the absence of constructive official discussions, I think it's really important that we try to keep up other connections. This (China) is the most populous country in the world, the second-largest economy. It's not going anywhere," she said.

"We need to figure out how we're going to coexist with China. We're not going to defeat them. We're not going to overturn their government. We're not going to invade them."

Thornton suggested to keep people-to-people and business connections going, and attempt to find some areas in multilateral talks where the two countries can work together.

A major problem in US-China relations is the Taiwan question, she said, adding that people in the US unfortunately do not understand how provocative and threatening US actions with regard to the island are for China.

"We have to take their concerns seriously, or we may end up in a situation that we really didn't design and didn't want to be in," she said.