China's rise has prompted the emergence of various assessment and advices for the US policy on China. Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, recently issued a summary report US-China 21: The Future of US-China Relations Under Xi Jinping. 

Rudd predicts that China's moderate growth in the coming 10 years will reserve reasonable room for the US foreign and security policy to deal with China. His report is upbeat about China's continuous development and affirmative about the Chinese government's efforts.

There is also analysis that is either negative about China or proposes confronting China. A recent special report, Revising US Grand Strategy Toward China by the US Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), says that China has formulated grand strategy to replace the US in Asia and recommends the US to revise its grand strategy toward China. Its arguments are built on the assumption that China's rise leads to its expansion, which therefore needs US containment.

While China is indeed rising, it doesn't seek any expansion. A major external cause for China's incomplete national unity 66 years after its establishment is the US disruption. Despite some territorial disputes with neighboring countries, China has not been involved in any international armed conflicts since 1988 and has peacefully demarcated borders with Russia and Central Asian neighbors through negotiations. The Iraq war staged by the US in 2003 is a powerful counterexample.

The longer China goes on its rise, the more capable it is to safeguard its legitimate interests in accordance with the international law. It will then be taken by the US as a stakeholder, which, however, doesn't obey Washington's hegemony. However, the US has to be aware that its hegemony has been promoted on the basis of its strength, which however has faltered rapidly since the new century. Its ability to maintain regional and international hegemony has been weakened.

The CFR report recommends that the US balance China's economic and military power. How can a goal that the US failed to achieve during the Cold War be realized in the globalized times? Given the economic interdependence of China and the US, it's unlikely that the US can damage China without hurting itself and it may even need more Chinese capital since China became a net capital export last year.

Moreover, it would be a self-frustrating act if the US tries to counter China's military development. China has researched and produced the majority of its military goods, with little reference to US help. Its independent defense technology system is highly competitive across the world in terms of conventional, unconventional, tactical and strategic weapons after half a century of development.

The US may have overly underestimated China's creativity if it wants to limit China simply through restrictions on technology export.

The US countering moves will indeed create some problems for China, but China's rise has been accompanied by efforts to deal with all kinds of hardships and difficulties. The US cooperation with China is always mutually beneficial and any attempt to limit China's development will unlikely to be sustained if it harms the legitimate interests of most Americans.

A rising China has long exceeded the US ability to contain it. China's re-emergence won't challenge the lawful relations between countries nor leads to its seeking hegemony as the US did, while it will expand its legitimate interests. Any grand strategy that seeks to extend the US hegemony will prove to be not only of no good but in vain.

The author is associate dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn