From Overseas Press

Mutual trust called crucial to US-China relations

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-09-13 16:52

The US needs to "forge ties with China that match in depth, scope and trust those it has with the EU as the center of gravity of world affairs moves from the Atlantic to the Pacific," said an article in the New York Times on Sep 12.

Last weekend, Henry A. Kissinger, a former secretary of state and national security adviser, warned at a conference of "the risk of a confrontation between the world's two biggest economies unless they create a pattern of continuous cooperation."

Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg also stressed the need to build the "strategic trust" with China, "an unshakeable foundation of mutual trust and instinctive cultural understanding of the kind that has underpinned Washington's relationship with its European allies."

He said that the test of the future will be whether the two governments can "have differences without fundamentally destabilizing their relationship." He pointed to the numerous times the US and European capitals had disagreed in recent decades, "but at the end of the day there was strategic trust."

According to the article, "China's rise as a major economic and political player is forcing governments across the world to adapt their strategic thinking on everything from energy security to regional conflict resolution and economic policy much faster than many had anticipated."

Under such circumstance, "avoiding such disagreements will be impossible, experts and officials said, "but ensuring that such differences do not fundamentally undermine the relationship is key to global stability in the decades ahead."