sheng120_ Lintao ZhangGetty Images_bidenchina

多极世界考验拜登

Dec 27, 2021 Andrew Sheng , Xiao Geng

香港—明年将是美国总统尼克松访华50周年。1972年，时任美国总统尼克松访问中国，会见了当时的中国共产党主席毛泽东和总理周恩来，这个历史事件是中美疏远和敌意几十年后又恢复关系的重要“破冰之旅”。可惜，半个世纪后，他们发起的中美合作进程几乎付诸东流，而美国总统乔·拜登对此负有部分责任。

1972年，中美两国意识形态差异存在鸿沟，但双方都认识到缓和中美关系能带来巨大好处。通过孤立苏联，美国和中国相互隔绝的局面被打破，加速了冷战的结束。中国将发展重点转为和平与经济建设，在随后的几十年里中美促进了全球和平与经济繁荣。

得益于庞大的劳动力基数和丰富的土地资源，中国成为制造强国，使得跨国公司能够大幅削减生产成本，为全球消费者提供价廉物美的消费品。随着时间的推移，中国人的收入增加了，低成本消费品的生产开始转移到其它地区。但中国的经济发展，尤其是其庞大的不断增长的国内市场需求继续使世界其它地区受益。

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Andrew Sheng

Writing for PS since 2011
126 Commentaries

Andrew Sheng, a distinguished fellow at the Asia Global Institute at the University of Hong Kong, is a member of the UNEP Advisory Council on Sustainable Finance.

Xiao Geng

Writing for PS since 2012
116 Commentaries

Xiao Geng, Chairman of the Hong Kong Institution for International Finance, is a professor and Director of the Institute of Policy and Practice at the Shenzhen Finance Institute at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen.

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lt lee Dec 29, 2021

America is deeply polarized. Besides political polarization, 3 other factors also contribute to make the US in a state of crisis. At present, talks of a second civil war are all over the media. America needs external enemies badly as a mean to unit internally. Biden has no time to engage constructively with China and Russia to figure out how to manage the new multipolar world.
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cedric hinsch Dec 27, 2021

Multipolarity has increasingly become the term used by those who either want to see the US led liberal international order falter, or think it already has. With respects to the second group I would stress the inherent weakness of US „peer“ competitors. Despite domestic and economic challenges the US capacities are not remotely at their potential peak. Russia‘s disruptive nature originated from its belated realization that it is not a great-power anymore. It is a regional player that tries to punch above its weight. In a closer relationship with China it would be a junior partner. I am curious how long such a relationship would stay amicable and smooth. In a world of the EU the US and China, the US belongs to the camp of 2. Add Russia, India and Japan, and the US would belong to a group of 4 in a world of 6. Those who simultaneously argue that A. the US should stop behaving like a hegemonical power and B. US hegemony is no longer feasible in a multipolar world create a self-inflicted contradiction. If the US had no longer the strength to act like a hegemon, it could not act like it and yet this piece bemoans that it does.
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