China, US should ‘try every tool’ to ease lingering concerns over lack of trust, experts say

Security impasse between Beijing and Washington is ‘darkest cloud’ hanging over regional stability, diplomats and policy experts say

Recent dialogue is encouraging, but the two countries must resume military communications

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Daniel Russel, a former diplomat from the US State Department, said that without dialogue, trust and transparency, relations between Washington and Beijing are trapped in a downward spiral. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 10:00am, 4 Jul 2023Updated: 12:01pm, 4 Jul 2023

China and the US must resume their military dialogue as soon as possible to rebuild trust, the lack of which has become a major concern to countries in the region, foreign diplomats and experts said.

Daniel Russel, the top US diplomat for Asia under former US president Barack Obama, said the security impasse between China and the US had become the “darkest cloud” affecting regional stability and recovery.

“What I heard [in Beijing] about ‘a certain country’ is of unusual similarities to what I hear in Washington,” Russel, now vice-president for international security and diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI), told academics and diplomats in Beijing at a panel discussion of the World Peace Forum.

Amid intensifying strategic rivalry, Beijing and Washington have accused each other of violating international laws, seeking hegemony and jeopardising the interests of developing countries, as well as peace and stability in the region.

“This demonstrates that the US and China have become mutually suspicious, increasingly hostile states,” he said.

“Each government thinks it is protecting the status quo and its legitimate rights. But since the other government’s behaviour is what is disrupted, each side perceives its own actions as legitimate and defensive.”

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