FM: China, U.S. can avoid Thucydides Trap, Kindleberger Trap

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivers a speech at the China Development Forum 2017 in Beijing, capital of China, March 20, 2017. (Xinhua/Li Xin)

China and the United States can sidestep the Thucydides Trap and the Kindleberger Trap and jointly chart bilateral ties from a long-term perspective, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Monday in Beijing.

"China has the confidence to avoid the historical precedent through enhanced dialogue and coordination with the U.S. side," Wang said during a luncheon speech at the 2017 China Development Forum (CDF).

As the interests of emerging powers and established powers converge in an interconnected world, conflicts will lead to nothing but a lose-lose situation, Wang said.

The Thucydides Trap refers to a warning by the ancient Greek historian that cataclysmic war can erupt if a rising power causes fear in an established power.

The two countries will not fall to the Kindleberger Trap either, Wang said, as a single country cannot provide all public goods for the world with such complexity, and international cooperation is the only possible choice.

Charles Kindleberger, an intellectual architect of the Marshall Plan who later taught at MIT, believes that the disastrous decade of the 1930s was caused by the U.S. replacing Britain as the largest global power but failing to take on Britain's role in providing public goods.

Applauding U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's remarks during his recent visit to China, Wang said that China stands ready to advance bilateral ties from a strategic perspective.

Tillerson said that the United States and China should jointly chart bilateral ties for the next 50 years and plan all-round cooperation.

On the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, Wang said that solutions proposed by China, including the "parallel-track approach", denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and replacing the Korean armistice with a peace agreement at the same time, as well as the "suspension-for-suspension proposal," that is the DPRK's suspension of missile and nuclear activities in exchange for a halt of the large scale U.S.-ROK exercises, are realistic and reasonable.

"Such solutions aim for resuming talks and early harvests," Wang said, adding that it is necessary to adopt a more flexible attitude and be creative in solving the issue.

China stands ready to shoulder its due international responsibilities, but never wants to lead the world, Wang said.

China has established different kinds of partnership with 97 countries and international organizations. Wang said that China will continue to expand such partnerships.