Former Chinese, US officials joust over China’s role on the world stage
- Ex-diplomat Fu Ying says at China Development Forum that Washington should not dictate Beijing’s role
- Former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers says China needs to give up its habits left over from ‘economic adolescence’
Former officials from China and the United States jousted on Sunday over China’s role on the world stage and how it should get there.
Veteran Chinese diplomat Fu Ying said Washington should not dictate what part China played and that the US should accept Beijing taking a more prominent role.
But Fu, a former deputy foreign minister and ambassador to the United Kingdom, also said at a gathering of foreign business representatives and former government officials in Beijing that China had no intention of replacing the United States on the world stage.
Speaking at the same gathering, former US treasury secretary Lawrence Summers called for China to provide reassurance that it would not try to displace the US, saying it should grow out of the habits left over from its “economic adolescence” and take more responsibility.
“There are many in my country who do not think that the ever rapid growth of the Chinese economy and strengthening of all its capabilities correspond to a better world for us,” Summers said during a session on the sidelines of the China Development Forum.
Summers, now an economics professor at Harvard University, said China’s actions and policies in recent years, including its military expansion in the Pacific Ocean and its alleged government-sponsored cyberattacks on the US, had raised alarms in the US and many parts of the world.