The relationship between China and the United States is not the same as that between the US and the former Soviet Union. Neither is history doomed to repeat itself, with a rising power battling with an established power for supremacy.

The competition between the US and the former Soviet Union was a contest for global hegemony. It was an adversarial struggle between two ideologies, capitalism and socialism, that became locked into the Cold War and an arms race to acquire a nuclear strike advantage. There were almost no economic links between the two sides. The present-day relationship between China and the US is so completely different that there is no sense in comparing it with the one between the US and the former Soviet Union.

Neither China nor the US can deny there exist some difficult structural contradictions and strategic competition between them. But the relationship between them differs from all the historical precedents.

Throughout history rising powers have clashed with established powers to decide who would be the winner that takes all. But times have changed and China and the US do not have to repeat the follies of the past.

However, the Sino-US relationship has been likened to one between a rising power and an established one too early. Historically, a rising power has only challenged an established power when it has the capability to do so. China and the US are far from equals in terms of their national strength.

The US possesses the biggest economic aggregate and the strongest military in the world. Its military spending is almost as much as all other countries in the world combined. It has a significant scientific and technological advantage and its soft power is heads and shoulders above any other country.

China is far behind the US in all these fields. There has been no essential change in the Sino-US balance of power, despite China's remarkable economic achievements over the last three decades. In other words, China does not have the capability to challenge the established hegemony. In fact, it is quite clear that the US does not really consider China as a big power.

This is because China is different from other rising powers in history, as it has only moderately increased its military strength during the course of its economic development and has not relied on military strength for its development. As China has repeatedly said, it has no desire to seek hegemony. China is committed to its policy of non-alignment, and adheres to a new security concept of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, and cooperation. China will never engage in any arms race.

China advocates win-win cooperation, and constantly adheres to this. This is in line with the trend for globalization. Like all other countries, China is just one link in the global economic chain. Its development will benefit the world, while it will also benefit from the world's development.

China will never seek development by sacrificing the interests of other countries. On the contrary, it is willing to sacrifice its own interests in favor of regional and global economic recovery, as has been demonstrated by its actions during the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s and the current global economic uncertainties. China's continuing reform and opening-up is aimed at integrating it further into the international system, where it seeks improvements in the international order, not its overturning.

The Chinese economy and the US economy are mutually dependent and strongly complementary to each other. The two countries are major trade partners and key financial and investment destinations for one another. These facts distinguish their relations from the historical relationships between rising and established powers. Viewed as a whole, the momentum is for broader and deeper cooperation between the US and China. The economic competition between the two countries is natural and it can be a driving force for their common development.

The world has entered an unprecedented era. Peace, development and cooperation have become the dominant trends. Both China and the US shoulder a historic responsibility to further boost these trends. Aware of this, China and the US have already started to explore the type of relationship that will be developed between them. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a recent news conference that a situation has now developed that has never before been seen in history, when an established power and a rising power are seeking ways to cooperate.

Confrontation between China and the US is not preordained or inevitable. It simply requires mutual trust and honest communication for them to write a completely new chapter in human history.

The author is director of American Center, China Foundation for International Studies.

(China Daily 07/12/2012 page8)