Calling on "masters" for Sino-US relations

• Source: Global Times
• [22:32 February 07 2010]
• Comments

It is only natural that China would want to change the rules of the game, if only to avoid being a scapegoat for Washington's incompetence once every four years.

However, nobody is willing from the bottom of the heart to share power or change political traditions they have enjoyed for decades. Especially not in Washington, even under a very different leadership.

As a result, we witnessed the drama between the two.

The solutions? Certainly, war benefits nobody. Cold War, neither. What else?

Looking at his suffering aunt who tries unsuccessfully to answer questions about the most sophisticated bilateral issues on Earth, my nephew, a third-grader, showed his sympathy by dragging me to his favorite game: go, a form of chess that our Chinese ancestors invented several thousand years ago.

The game is played by two opponents who alternately place black and white stones on the vacant intersections of a grid.

The object of the game is to control a larger portion of the board than the opponent. No surprise. I lost to my nephew. But he was very much the gentleman. He told me why I lost:

"Aunty, you have to have the ability to read ahead! You have to think about your next moves, the possible responses I would have to each of your moves, and the subsequent possibilities after each of those responses. You understand?"

Seeing me even more confused, he said I should aspire to become a real "master," who keeps the whole board in mind during local fights.

The "master" has the vision to allow a tactical loss if it might mean a strategic advantage later on.

Wow! What an abstract, yet fascinating philosophy. Certainly, as a casual player of go, I am no smarter than a third-grader.

But I wonder if that is the philosophy many should study now when it comes to Sino-US relations.

For the sake of the world, we must all be "masters!"

Tian Wei is the host of "Dialogue" on CCTV's English Channel, and the main anchor of CCTV's special coverage of important domestic and international events. Previously, Tian worked in Washington D.C. as a correspondent, and covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan