By Wang Yusi and Wang Xinjuan
Beijing, December 3 -- A panel focused on "Trends of Major Power Relations" of the Beijing Xiangshan Forum video workshop was held on December 2. Experts and scholars from countries, including China, the US, Australia, and Singapore had a deep exchange of views. Yuan Peng, President of China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), chaired the panel.
Li Shuyin, a researcher at the Institute of War Studies of the PLA Academy of Military Sciences, expressed her views on China-Russia relations in an interview. She said, “In terms of strategic stability, China-Russia cooperation is of great importance for the world’s strategic landscape and will have a positive influence on regional and global peace and stability. The two countries have worked closely in multiple domains, including non-traditional security. In particular, in the fight against COVID-19, China and Russia supported each other with medical supplies and both extended a helping hand to surrounding countries. Providing mutual help, strengthening cooperation and fulfilling their responsibilities as major powers are an effective way for the two countries to respond to non-traditional security challenges jointly.”
“Major power relations play a significant role in the international order. China and Russia have no doubt set a good example of major power relations and neighborly relations, and will push the international order to develop more healthily,” added Li.
Experts from different countries made predictions about the trends of major power relations, especially China-US relations. Joseph S. Nye Jr., Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus and former Dean of the Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, believed that there is vast room for China-US cooperation in areas such as climate change and disease prevention and control despite disputes over the South China Sea and other issues.
Yan Xuetong, dean of Tsinghua University’s Institute of Modern International Relations and Secretary General of the World Peace Forum, held that “uncertainty will remain a basic feature of the future international order. We are on the way to a new order.”
Hugh White, Emeritus Professor at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre of the Australian National University, stressed that the US is expected to continue playing an important role in the new global and regional order. Still, the role played by other major powers, including China, should be fully recognized as well.
Dr. Li Mingjiang, an Associate Professor at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, focused on economy and trade, saying that China’s willingness to consider joining the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) is not only good for the country itself, but will also stabilize its relation with other major countries, promote regional stability, and revitalize globalization.