US President Richard Nixon's bold opening to China in 1972 marked a historic step on the road to a modern multipolar international system. Since that time, however, persistent Cold War thinking in Washington and in European capitals has interfered with this process.
Recently, there has been a frenzied media blitz and exaggerated rhetoric about a so-called "return to Asia," US President Barack Obama as the "first Pacific President," and an "American Pacific Century."
Today, unfortunately, there is a disturbing shift in US foreign policy and national strategy. Foreign policy under the Obama administration is becoming a policy of confrontation and forward "hard" containment of China. Coercive diplomacy and political, psychological, and economic warfare are seen by many in Washington as appropriate tools to deal with Beijing.
Rather than working together to transform the present international system, Washington's hegemonic vision aims at organizing and controlling a so-called concert of democratic states, so as to impose a certain world order. A realistic path for Washington, on the other hand, would move toward a cooperative concert of great powers to transform the present international system and to shape a modern multipolar world.
In the US, there are essentially two contending foreign policy perspectives. On the one hand, the hegemonic perspective of the "imperial faction" advocates a foreign policy of hegemony and confrontation in a world it sees as essentially "unipolar" and "led" by Washington.
On the other hand, we have a traditional US perspective advocating a policy of peace, development, and cooperation in an emerging multipolar world where sovereignty, mutual benefit, and mutual respect must be active principles.
The present consensus of the imperial faction can be quickly summarized.
The US will continue to be the global hegemonic power and will organize the international system accordingly under its "leadership."
This means the main lines of the so-called liberal international order established by the West after World War II and continued during the Cold War era will be continued. "Western values" and "rules" will underpin the global order, and all countries will agree to them or be subject to political and psychological warfare, coercive diplomacy, and force including preventive war.
The rise of China will be "managed" by a combination of US-NATO power, the increased regional role of the US in the Asia-Pacific, the formation of a global coalition of democratic states, and the formation of a Trans-Pacific coalition of democratic states.
In the future, both the global coalition of democratic states and the Trans-Pacific coalition of democratic states could be integrated into a global US-led security alliance.
Given Washington's imperial mood, tensions may increase between the US and China as signaled by Obama's somewhat ham-handed recent venture into the Asia-Pacific region. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's high-flown rhetoric has not been reassuring either.
Under the hegemonic policy logic, China is to be forced to accept Washington's vision of the so-called liberal international order.
The so-called liberal international order is said to represent "Western" and "democratic" values, and China is expected to adopt these political and economic values.
Under such hegemonic logic, alternative models are precluded as is working in concert to shape a modern international system in which all powers, large and small, could be comfortable.
In the US, however, there are many who would like to see the US, China, Russia and other members of the international community work together to significantly transform the present international system into one appropriate for our time and for the next generation.
Positive and constructive Sino-US relations are essential for world peace and development today and especially in the coming decades.
Nixon's historic diplomatic initiative deserves to be remembered and built upon to shape a modern international system.
The author is a professor at the Department of Politics, Washington and Lee University, and a former senior professional staff member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn