Opinion | Lessons from the Alaska summit: both the US and China must rethink their diplomacy
- Beijing’s diplomacy vis-à-vis the US too often sounds like a broken record. A dynamic, mostly improving China should have more to offer
- Meanwhile, American diplomats seem utterly flummoxed by Beijing, and risk aiming at old China ghosts rather than new realities
Struggling with the Covid-19 pandemic and the continuing climate crisis, the world would cheer any degree of relief from bad news. But a roaring quarrel between the two biggest elephants in any jungle is bound to set the nerves of the other animals on edge.
At a time when China’s economy is setting modern records, Beijing’s diplomacy vis-à-vis the US too often sounds like a broken record. There’s plenty of fault on both sides, but let’s start with the psyche of contemporary Chinese diplomacy. Rooted in a mausoleum of past resentment and score-setting, it has scant room to breathe.
Historically, China may offer a most comfortable cultural couch for a sitting emperor, but today’s reality is a dynamic, mostly improving Chinese society, more or less plugged into the outside world, creating pressures on the old to accept new ways. The Communist Party needs to be smarter than ever.