Editor's Note: Tom Fowdy is a British political and international relations analyst and a graduate from Durham and Oxford universities. He writes on topics pertaining to China, the DPRK, Britain, and the United States. The article reflects the author's opinion, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Last week, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Affairs Susan Thornton spearheaded an open letter to Washington Post where 100 U.S. China experts, business leaders, diplomats and military professionals urged the Trump administration and Washington, DC to end its confrontational approach toward China. By titling the letter "China Is Not An Enemy," the group warned of profound risks to America's interests and the global economy if the White House continues to pursue a Cold War mentality based on the misleading and exaggerated notion of a "China threat."

A few days later, Thornton followed up the letter with an article in the American Foreign Service Journal titled "Is American Diplomacy with China Dead?" In this article, she goes into greater depth than the Washington Post letter and explores the fundamental meaning of the U.S.-China relationship over the past 40 years. Criticizing Washington's current all-out hysteria and confrontational mentality, she notes that American engagement has had a positive impact on China's course of development.

Despite disagreements, the Chinese people do not view the U.S. in antagonistic or negative terms. Rather than fearing that Beijing strives to "replace" Washington as the world leader, she makes the argument that America's success has stood as an example that China wants to emulate. Thus, she recommends that the only way forward is coexistence, not confrontation.

In 1972, President Richard Nixon made an unprecedented visit to China and met with leader Mao Zedong. This served to become a historical turning point in the Sino-U.S. relationship. After decades of Cold War confrontation, the two countries moved beyond ideological differences and found common grounds to work together. The move laid the foundation for a great political and economic change within the PRC, upon which China's "reform and opening-up" policy was enacted. The people of China have been able to interact with a whole new set of culture, style of life and prosperity, as the geopolitical shift made economic changes possible.

Based on this history, Thornton heralds the success of China-America ties. The United States helped to guide China into a plethora of global institutions, organizations and norms. This transformed China from a contender to a beneficiary and stakeholder of the world order. She notes that U.S. cultural icons and films are highly popular in China and that lots of Chinese families send their children to American schools for higher education. 

Due to these economic and cultural interactions, she elaborates that what Xi Jinping describes as the "Chinese Dream" is not a vision for a rivalry against America, but is, in fact, closer to the meaning of the "American Dream" itself. China aspires to establish itself not as an ideological alternative to America, but as a country with economic and cultural success equal to what the United States has achieved. In order to have such an achievement, China needs positive ties with the U.S. and its allies.

As such, she believes that the prospects of American diplomacy with China are far from being a failure. Rather than descending into a barrage of clichés and misleading assumptions, the United States has to build a positive and productive relationship with China through diplomacy and engagement, based on which the two countries can evolve together.

Therefore, with China's role in the world obviously expanding in size and scope, the United States has to learn to live with this and adapt to it accordingly through prudent diplomatic strategies, rather than to engage in a confrontation that risks undermining everything that has been achieved between the two countries. While there always will be differences and conflicts of interest, the U.S.-China relationship does not need to become a zero-sum game. It is crucial that Washington turns to look at the bigger picture and not proceed onward on the path it is currently going down.

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