China, U.S. should bear global responsibility, but in different ways

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Editor's note: The article is based on an interview with Ding Yifan, a senior research fellow at the National Strategy Institute of Tsinghua University. The article reflects the expert's views, and not necessarily those of CGTN.

U.S. President Donald Trump said both the United States and China have a responsibility towards the world and a trade agreement between the two sides is favorable to the world during the ninth round of China-U.S. trade talks in Washington on Thursday.

Trump's words seem to be a positive response to Chinese President Xi Jinping's remarks, who on many occasions emphasized that "China and the United States share important responsibilities in promoting world peace and prosperity."

"Although Trump said both China and the United States should be responsible towards the world, however, the 'responsibilities' the two countries should bear are totally different," said Ding Yifan, a senior research fellow at the National Strategy Institute of Tsinghua University.

U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters covering his meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He (third from right) at the White House, April 4, 2019. /CMG Photo

According to Ding's observation, for Trump, there is no doubt that Washington's responsibility is positioning itself as a global leader in international affairs, and China, as a growing power, should shoulder more responsibilities under the leadership of the United States.

China, indeed, wants to assume more responsibilities, but in different ways with different visions.

"For China, its responsibility is to promote the development of the world economy and help the less developed countries achieve industrialization as soon as possible. That's why China has put forward the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the idea of 'a community of a shared future for mankind,'" Ding noted.

China has done very well in bearing global responsibilities. The BRI is a case in point. According to Chinese official reports, as of June 2018, China's trade with countries along the Belt and Road exceeded five trillion U.S. dollars. China's total investment in these countries reached 28.9 billion U.S. dollars, creating 244,000 jobs, and greatly promoting the development of these countries.

The Belt and Road networks are increasing countries' connectivity around the world. /VCG Photo

Even U.S. researchers have positively evaluated China's BRI.

AidData – a U.S.-based project that tracks development assistance – says Chinese government-financed connective infrastructure projects have been able to narrow economic disparities within a country in a way that traditional Western donors may have failed to achieve, according to the South China Morning Post.

China is doing more than just taking on global responsibility.

It has been actively working to promote the building of a community of a shared future for mankind, from fighting against poverty and firmly pushing a new round of reform and opening-up, to creating new opportunities for the world, actively participating in UN peacekeeping operations and working for peace on the Korean Peninsula.

During his recent visit to Europe, President Xi also proposed a Chinese solution to solve the global governance, trust, peace and development deficits faced by mankind, demonstrating the latest move in shouldering responsibility of major countries.

However, the U.S. seems to be moving in the opposite track.

When Trump presented his "America First" policy, that was the beginning of him shirking global responsibility.

The Paris City Hall is illuminated in green following the announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump that the United States will withdraw from the 2015 Paris accord on June 1, 2017. /VCG Photo

On June 1, 2017, Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the 2015 Paris Agreement, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer saying the decision is "one of the worst policy moves made in the 21st Century."

In the following year, the businessman-turned-president had taken his "withdrawal" behavior to the extreme by pulling the U.S. out of the UNESCO, the Iran Nuclear Deal and several other bilateral or multilateral agreements.

Now, the U.S. economic growth rate has begun to slow. Harm Bandholz, chief U.S. economist at UniCredit Bank, told "Bloomberg Surveillance" that the U.S. economy is heading towards a slowdown in 2019 and 2020. The Federal Reserve also lowered its expectations for U.S. economic growth in 2019.

In addition, Trump's trade war with China didn't yield the results he had expected, instead, it made China's trade surplus with the U.S. go up.

All of these have put Trump under great pressure, and he urgently needs to end the year-long trade war with China and strike a deal to transfer domestic pressure. From this perspective, Trump has conveyed a positive sign by saying China and U.S. should bear global responsibility.

As an old Chinese saying goes, judge a person not by his words, but by his actions. It also applies to measuring a country. For the U.S., bearing "global responsibility" means taking more concrete and sincere actions, not just easy promises.

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