Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

In today's world, with numerous nation-state and ethnic confrontations and with planetary problems like climate change and pandemics, the real conflict should not be between opposing political systems but rather between the forces of modernity, competence and development on the one hand, and those of ignorance, exploitation and oppression on the other. By this calculus, China and the US should be sitting on the same side of the table. But this is why the cascading free fall in US-China relations is so counterproductive.

Is all the US' unnuanced negativity about China furthering long-term American interests? Of course not. But then neither are the anti-American unnuanced pronouncements of Chinese officials furthering Chinese interests. There is a vicious cycle between American and Chinese mutual attacks, each amplifying the other in a race to the bottom.

I have long maintained that the peace and prosperity of the entire world are related directly to the bilateral relations between the US and China. 

I know leaders, officials and experts in both China and the US, and the large majority are highly educated, highly competent, professionally sophisticated, and morally upright. How then the dramatic opposing views?

I advocate being candid, with each side stating to the other side what it really believes. I can recite the stereotypical views of anti-Chinese Americans and anti-American Chinese, but none of this, I suggest, neither Chinese nor American stereotypical views, is the deep reason for US-China tensions. The deep reason, on both sides, is nationalism, which features in all societies and all social systems. 

Nationalism is rooted in biological evolution, where early human allegiance to the group and the tribe, increased fitness for survival and procreation in the development of our species. Human beings have confirmed over and over again that they will bear any hardship, endure any pain, to protect the sanctity and pride of the group, which today is usually the nation-state or specific ethnicities.

I am always amazed how intelligent folk can so easily see the counter-productivity of misguided nationalism when viewing dispassionately the behaviors of others, while they are so easily blinded in not discerning the same misguided nationalism in their own, similar passions. 

Notwithstanding real issues on both sides, simplistic bias and one-dimensional stereotyping, driven by nationalism on both sides, is a recipe for confrontation, not cooperation. But to recognize and expose nationalism is to cool its passions and reduce its power, allowing rational forces on both sides to build trust.

We have indeed entered a period of "struggle" between China and the US, though I would hesitate to call it an "ideological struggle." For example, issues of sovereignty and territoriality, for all countries, are drivers of foreign policy irrespective of political ideology. This is similar for espionage, cyber and other forms. Nationalism transcends ideology.

There are multiple, tortuous issues between China and the US. But if I have to pick, at this moment, the most insidious, it would be one on each side. In the US, some call for the CPC to be removed from power, a direct interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, and in China, some would seek to control information and influence discourse in other countries via economic and diplomatic pressures and other means.

These two ways of thinking feed on each, in a vicious cycle of escalation. The more China senses that the US wants to overthrow its socialist, CPC-led political system, the more it will try to influence US and Western discourse. And the more the US senses that China wants to control information beyond its borders, the more the US will seek to change the system.

The US should come to recognize the benefits for China of China's CPC-led system; poverty alleviation and pandemic control, as well as economic development, are evidence. For its part, China should come to have more confidence in the success of its system and not react sharply to every perceived criticism from beyond its borders.

The challenge for the US is to avoid threatening China's core interests, especially Party leadership and Taiwan. The challenge for China is to reduce the anxiety of those who fear China's rise, especially of those who accused China of restricting information and constraining freedoms of non-Chinese. 

Political wisdom is needed for avoiding further exacerbation and escalation, which would only harm both countries and the world as a whole.

Nothing would be better for the American and Chinese peoples, indeed for all people, than genuine cooperation between the US and China. I'm watching for wisdom.

Granted, China's relations with much of the developed world are undergoing change. It may sound paradoxical, but I view these changes as a special opportunity for China to emerge as a champion of the global good, even beyond the fact that it is already the largest trading nation with most countries. Because China's image is often portrayed in the international media in a simplistic, antagonistic, homogeneous, self-aggrandizing manner, China's actions for the global good, such as supplying vaccines to less developed countries, become both surprising and appreciated, undermining stereotypes and catalyzing rethinking. 

China's leaders assert that, in an integrated global economy, China's stability and development is essential for world peace and prosperity. The CPC-led political system, they insist, is essential for maintaining such stability and development, from which the world benefits - from 5G technology to containing epidemics to alleviating poverty.

China and the US, working together, should become bulwarks of peace and engines of prosperity, which would benefit both peoples and all humanity.

The author is chairman of The Kuhn Foundation and recipient of the China Reform Friendship Medal (2018). opinion@globaltimes.com.cn