Editor's Note: Zhang Weiwei is a professor of international relations at Fudan University, and a senior research fellow at the Chunqiu Institute. He is also the author of "The China Wave: Rise of a Civilizational State." This article, based on the transcript of his speech delivered at Harvard University on October 15, 2018, was originally published in Chinese on the Guancha website.

In January 1976, Time magazine for the very first time put a Chinese leader on its cover. This leader is Deng Xiaoping, and beside his photo, a question is asked, “China: friend or foe?”

Back then China was one of the poorest countries in the world and had not officially become a friend of the US. Now more than 40 years have gone by, the country has already been the world's second largest economy, whose interests are deeply intertwined with those of the US, as the two countries' cooperation have reached an unprecedented level. However, the question is still very much debated.

So is China a friend or a foe for the US?

Within American society there seems to be a growing sense of hostility towards China, especially when we look at Vice President Pence's recent speech where he denounces China as a despicable “enemy” of the US that poses great threats.

People who share these negative sentiments clearly ignore the fact that in the past 40 years, exchanges between China and US have soared. For example, the trade volume between the two countries in 2017 was 233 times than that in 1979 and currently there are 14,000 people traveling between the two countries every day.

Zhang Weiwei attends an event in Central China Normal University in Wuhuan, Hubei Province in China on April 23, 2018. /VCG Phto

However, despite the negative comments made about China, I am not blind to some positive signs in the bilateral relations; as I have noticed, many people in the US have shown more and more interest in China, especially young Americans.

In many states, people are being rather friendly towards China. According to the American Chamber of Commerce in China, even in face of the trade war, the majority of US companies in China remain upbeat and one third of them plan to increase their investment in the country.

It is hard to tell which sentiment dominates the public opinion at the moment. But either way, I am not pessimistic about the future of the bilateral relations, as the saying goes, “Things may have to get worse before they get better.”

That being said, based on my observations, I do sense that the US has three major understandings of China, which are worrisome.

First, those who believe in the Thucydides Trap think that as China rises, it will threaten to displace the US and a war is thus inevitable;

Second, China is trying to sell the “Chinese model” to the world;

And third, China's foreign policies are expansionist.

Before addressing these huge misunderstandings, I need to draw attention to the question yet again: Is China a friend or a foe?

Quite frankly, behind this question is a classic American way of thinking, which more often than not sees everything in black and white or as zero-sum games. The same logic is exemplified by the former US President George W. Bush, who once famously said, “With us or against us.”

Chinese tourists visit Stanford University in California, United States, on August 2, 2018. /VCG Photo

Different from this trait of American culture, Chinese political culture, on the other hand, seems to have placed more value on inclusiveness both in history and now. We tend to be more mild and tolerant towards differences in various cultures and societies, as we believe all of them have their own merits and strengths and are thus, worth learning from.

In other words, the differences in other countries' ideologies and political systems do not prevent us from wanting to “be friends” with them.

Chinese inclusiveness can also find its expression in how we deal with religions. In Chinese history, different religions including Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism have managed to coexist and complemented each other, which saved China from being embroiled in protracted religious wars that would cause enormous damage to the people. In comparison, religious differences, in my view, had motivated hundreds of years of wars in the European history.

Therefore, the inclusiveness and tolerance of the Chinese culture, as I have illustrated above, prove the first two of the aforementioned misunderstandings terribly wrong – because China does not see things through the prism of zero-sum games and it does not push others to accept China's values.

Finally, concerning the third misconception about China, in a similar vein, saying the country adopts an expansionist policy is simply ludicrous.

Unlike the West, China does not have a militarist tradition. When the Chinese Ming dynasty government sent its diplomat, Zheng He, on seven naval expeditions to the lands around the Indian Oceans in the first half of 15th century, they did not colonize the region, even though Zheng's team was much better equipped than Christopher Columbus' who would discover America 80 years later. It is also worth mentioning that the Great Wall in China was built in an effort to defend the nation rather than to initiate attacks.

An attendee holds a placard reading 'Make America Proud Again' during a rally with U.S. President Donald Trump in Lewis Center, Ohio, U.S., on Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. /VCG Phto

Moreover, if we go back to the time when China first developed its nuclear weapons, the country declared it would not use nuclear weapons first or use it against a non-nuclear state.

Therefore, I am truly saddened by the American media's representation of China, which is unfair and portrays the country as assertive and belligerent.

Many people fail to understand that the only reason why China attaches great importance to having a strong national defense is that the country had suffered enormous pain from a series of foreign invasions in its modern history.

It was after repeated humiliations of being pushed around by big foreign powers that China realized, without the ability to defend itself, it would never be able to control its own fate.

Right now, we are at a critical moment in history; every decision we make now will have serious repercussions for the future. There is a considerable force in the US that tries to drag China into a new Cold War. However, if it indeed happened, it would not only be against the US interests, but would also cause great damage to China and the world.

Therefore, I do hope that as the two largest economies in the world, China and the US, with both sides' interests so inextricably linked, can solve their disagreements and work together. Only through cooperation can we expect win-win results for both countries.

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