Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

One would never expect US scholars like Gordon Chang to say anything that really matters. During a Monday program on Fox Business Channel, Chang, the doomsayer of China, said that the best route to take with China would be "for the US to cut its ties with China."

Chang is notoriously known in China for his 2001 book, The Coming Collapse of China. Controversies arose around him because his prediction of China's collapse never came true. In the past two decades, he has badmouthed China and repeated his fallacious theory from time to time. But it was during this period that China made achievements in all sectors seen by the rest of the world. 

Chang views China through his own subjective lens, and all his China comments are subject to his hysterical sense of values, and dominated by ideology and sentiment. His conclusion about China did not come from careful research into academic works, but was a result of his preconceived biased ideas.

Voices of cutting ties with the US were also heard from time to time in China, but such views are marginalized. So are the views of Chang's. While he advocated a cutoff between China and the US, he just meant to use extreme and outrageous ideas to make noise and attract public attention. The US media needs his anti-China noise to hype China-US tensions, while he could use the chance to make a sensation of himself. Everyone knows he is far from a serious and respected scholar.

It is easier to vent one's spleen against China by advocating cutting off ties with it. But those like Chang would never take US national interests into real consideration or offer feasible suggestions. Actually, any suggestion to cut ties with China is irrational and impractical. 

Amid years of globalization, the economic and trade interests between China and the US have become highly intertwined. Both societies have benefited a lot from this economic and trade relationship. China-made products have helped support middle-class Americans. And as long as US technology still relies on China's industrial chains for production, ties between China and the US will not be cut off. 

US media reported that the US and China will hold high-level talks on August 15 to assess the implementation of the phase one trade deal signed in January. While the US has heightened tensions with China on almost all levels, bilateral trade frictions have been kept low, which means the US is centered on real interests. 

Cutting ties is not as easy as a video playback. It is just an illusion that the US would return to its peak, or the gap between China and the US would return to the level before the two engaged in some heated exchanges. In an era when interests are intertwined, cutting ties will only leave a mess.

Cutting ties with China means to cut ties with the rest of the world. People like Gordon Chang have overestimated the US ability to bear the huge costs of cutting ties with China.