People’s Daily
“In a successful negotiation, everybody wins,” said Gerard Irwin Nierenberg, an American negotiation expert.
However, the US has run counter to such idea, resulting in serious setbacks in bilateral trade negotiations. The US has not only made a grave miscalculation, but also completely underestimated China’s determination and will in defending its rights and interests.
It is universally recognized that China-US trade talks have focused on trade imbalances from the very beginning. However, the US continued to expand the scope of the talks and frequently raised unreasonable demands during the negotiation process.
Even so, China has always responded to the US concerns with utmost sincerity and goodwill, resolved disagreements through seeking common ground while putting aside differences, done its best to advance the negotiation process and achieved a series of important results.
By doing so, China has pursued win-win cooperation and been responsible for peoples of the two countries and the world.
To reach a good agreement between the two countries, each other’s core interests and major concerns must be accommodated.
The trade talks need to focus on trade issues. If a country continues to make unreasonable demands in the negotiations, or even tries to write terms and conditions harming core interests of the other country into an agreement, it only sets obstacles for the negotiations and shows no sincerity.
No country should entertain the fantasy that China will barter away its core national interests, Chinese President Xi Jinping once said.
Expecting China to barter away issues of principle and its core interests is doomed to be the biggest strategic misjudgment for the US.
For China-US trade negotiations, China shows its sincerity and is reasonable in the process. What’s more, China will defend its dignity and never be afraid of any country making unreasonable requests.
If the US regards China’s sincerity as “being weak”, and therefore thinks that it can take anything it wants from China, changes the number of its trade volume with China regardless of their agreement and facts, constantly raises unreasonable demands against China’s core interests, or even acts arrogantly and adopts bullying practices in the wording of an agreement text, it acts will certainly be opposed.
China has no intention to change or displace the US, while the US cannot expect to dictate to China or impede the latter’s development. On issues concerning its core interests, China will not make the slightest concession to the US.
The deal-making tactic of extreme pressure is doomed to not work for China that had endured so much in the past. The salami-slice strategy in negotiations is only one-sided wish. And the ulterior motives to contain China are nothing more than wishful thinking for the Chinese nation on a journey toward the great rejuvenation.
The unequal treaties that were imposed on China by foreign powers are still fresh in our memory. Since 1840, a series of unequal treaties had inflicted untold sufferings to the Chinese people. This is why the Communist Party of China, since its founding, had given priority to abolishing the unequal treaties, which were completely abolished after the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Today, the Chinese nation has embarked on a journey toward the great rejuvenation. Any attempt to force China to sign an unequal treaty is not only an extreme ignorance of the modern history of China, but also a great provocation against the Chinese people.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the PRC. Looking back, this momentous journey has given us many valuable inspirations. An important one is that China has followed a right path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and reform and opening up is the only way to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics.
China has kept its door open for trade talks and international exchanges, and kept to its principles and bottom line. The Chinese people will not be swayed from the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, nor can anyone stop them from realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
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