Editor's Note: The U.S. president Joe Biden once alleged that his country has no intention to use Taiwan as a tool to seek advantages in competition with China or to contain China. Is it true? Why does the U.S. provoke China on the Taiwan question? Josef Gregory Mahoney, Professor of Politics and International Relations, East China Normal University and Xie Tao, Dean of School of International Relations and Diplomacy, Beijing Foreign Studies University share their views. The commentary reflects the authors' opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.

CGTN: Why does the U.S. keep poking China on Taiwan?

Mahoney: First, due to its own national security assessments, America's competitive advantages in military matters will be surpassed sometime in the 2030s if not sooner. So, there are reasons to spark a conflict sooner rather than later, while the U.S. still has the edge.

Second, although what Beijing says about Taiwan has been consistent through the years, the U.S. now gratuitously over-interprets any mentions of reunification as new provocations. And it does this because Taiwan is a point of strategic leverage, because China did not collapse as America predicted but has emerged stronger.

Third, U.S. political polarization ensures a relentless, cutthroat competition between Republicans and Democrats. The competition is over who can talk and act tougher against China, and in part because they're so impotent when it comes to dealing with America's own problems that they want to scapegoat China for whatever ills they face.

Fourth, there are reasons to be concerned that the American provocations and now proxy war in Ukraine serve as a template for sparking a similar type of aggression against China. The situations are of course very different, geographically, historically, legally, and so on, but these differences are in fact obscured in American discourses on Taiwan.

Xie: There is no doubt that the biggest risk for U.S.-China relations is the Taiwan issue, of course. As you know what happened last year when the former speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan and that caused a huge reaction and anger from the Chinese side, right？This is a combination of domestic politics. It's about political posturing, grandstanding. When there is an armed conflict, that would be devastating to say the least not just to the United States and China and people on Taiwan, but also to the whole region. Nobody is going to win anything, gain anything from an armed conflict in the Taiwan Straits.

CGTN: What are the differences between China and the United States on security concepts?

Xie: The United States, because it's a global power, and so therefore, it views its national security in a rather expanding way, for example, the U.S.'s relations with Taiwan and also the cross-strait relations, and then what happens in the Middle East and other parts of the world. As you can see the U.S. side has more or less a tendency to securitize many issues such as economic issues, human rights issues, democratization abroad. So it's a much more expansive way of looking at the national security.

Mahoney: On the one hand, Washington views China, explicitly, as the only country in the world that can displace the U.S. as a global superpower. On the other hand, China asserts it opposes this kind of zero-sum thinking. First, it knows this kind of conflict is not only dangerous and it's also existentially irresponsible, not only facing the need to still bring development to a large percentage of its population, but also to the rest of the developing world, and to do so under rising constraints like climate change and food, water and energy insecurities. Second, China does not want to rule the worldand knows that it can't. It doesn't subscribe to a universal concept of governance like the U.S. does. It doesn't view itself as a melting pot of all cultures and values. And this is the root of their security differences. The U.S. wants to remain the global hegemon, and China wants a global system without hegemony.

Editors: Liang Zhiqiang, Duan Jiaxin

Graphic designer: Qi Haiming

Producer: Wang Ying

Chief editor: Li Shouen

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