BBC News article Viewpoint: China’s hubris colours US relations by Harvard University professor and former US Assistant Secretary of Defence for International Security Affairs, Joseph Nye reports on US-China relations on the eve of President Hu Jintao’s January 2011 state visit to Washington DC. With US-China relations having been one of the main focuses of Mr Obama’s presidency, Nye debates where both nations stand in terms of their power and relationship in the 21st Century.
The article reads that with its “successful economic recovery from the recession, China passed Japan as the world's second largest economy, and America's slow recovery led many Chinese to mistakenly conclude that the United States was in decline.” Nye challenges this notion of American decline put forward by China, arguing that the view expressed by the Chinese is “seriously mistaken” and that “China is unlikely to equal American economic, military or soft power for decades to come.”
While he opposes the idea of American declinism, he does state that China’s “over-confidence in power assessment… led to more assertive Chinese foreign policy behaviour in the last two years” and that “China’s new attitudes alienated the Obama administration”. This suggests that even though the US may not be in decline, it is becoming increasingly aware of China’s rise in power – in turn making relations between the two nations difficult. Nye suggests that their “relationship will remain difficult as long as the Chinese suffer from hubris based on a mistaken belief in American decline.”
Overall Nye’s article seems to make three clear points about US-China relations. These are, firstly that China has been, and is currently, a rising economic and military power which may rival that of the United States in the future. Secondly, that America is not yet in decline as has been suggested. Lastly, that the relationship between China and the United States is, and shall remain, a difficult one in the years to come.
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