Foreign Minister Wang Yi Speaks of Americans’ Apprehension

[unhappycamper]

http://watchingamerica.com/WA/2016/03/26/foreign-minister-wang-yi-speaks-of-americans-apprehension/



Foreign Minister Wang Yi Speaks of Americans’ Apprehension
Published in China News (China) on 9 March 2016 by Liu Zhiqin [link to original]
Translated from Chinese by Jake Eberts. Edited by Helaine Schweitzer.
Posted on March 26, 2016.

The event that most drew people’s attention this year at the Two Sessions* was likely Ministry of Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi’s reporters’ reception. Just after the end of the reception, Foreign Minister Wang Yi chatted and joked with the reporters, freely answering questions, and receiving wide public praise.

It was the topic touching on U.S.-China relations that particularly drew passionate debate. Foreign Minister Wang Yi used the simplest and clearest language to reiterate to the world China’s friendship with and optimism for America. This was a pleasant change for many, and allowed the media that worries about U.S.-China relations to relax, while causing those few [entities] that yearn for increased conflict — so as to use the country as a cat’s paw — to lose hope.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s speech demonstrated that China is a responsible great power, with a magnanimous, upright mind and a long view toward the future and to peace. We click “like” for Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s wonderful performance!

Most recently, the controversy between China and America over the South China Sea problem seems to be quite vigorous. Many international relations experts are deeply worried about this, fearing China and the U.S. have no way to avoid Thucydides’ trap, and that it will be hard not to go through a war to determine the two countries’ international standing. This kind of worry is truly too much of a novelization, and carries the characteristics of Mount Liang** where ancient heroes fight over their seating order at a martial arts tournament. What is clear is that this kind of method is certainly ineffective in handling current U.S.-China relations.

--

I had to look up "Thucydides’ trap:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_T._Allison#Thucydides_Trap

Thucydides Trap

Allison coined the phrase "Thucydides Trap" to refer to when a rising power causes fear in an established power which escalates toward war. Thucydides wrote: "What made war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta."[2]