China and US already in early stage of a new Cold War, have to choose either peace or escalation: Analysts

When handling a relationship with the US, Taiwan was surely an issue that he would have had to face, explained Dr Chen.

Dr Gao said the US would be concerned that if China surpasses it on the global stage, it would “try to sideline the United States and impose the Chinese political system, ideology or values”.

However, he said that a strong China would not do so, and instead wants to deal with all countries as equals.

He said that as Washington analyses everything that Foreign Minister Qin Gang said, fundamentally and philosophically, “they need to come to the conclusion that China is not an enemy of the United States”.

“The peaceful rise of China is not to be stopped, and actually it will create a lot of opportunities for business people and communities in the United States,” added Dr Gao.

ON RUSSIA

Dr Chen said that China’s geopolitical plan on the Ukraine war has been to remain neutral, while still developing its economic and technological ties with Russia.

“These days we see that China does see Russia as a kind of leverage over the United States and other western countries,” he said.

He noted that Mr Qin’s background as ambassador to the US means one of his strengths is his ability to handle the complex relationship with the United States.

“We do see his remarks focusing on power politics, which means that China would try to leverage other big powers in its relationship with the United States.”

Dr Gao noted that China and Russia have had “good neighbouring relations” since 1991, and that has been a major factor contributing to global peace and stability.

The two countries share a border running for more than 4,300km, he said, so the state of their relationship affects the stability “in Asia as a whole and on the Eurasian continent at large”.

“China has always been standing by the side of peace, urging peace, urging diplomacy and negotiations and offering goodwill, offering intermediary positions to both Russia as well as Ukraine, trying to urge them to sit down at the negotiation table to talk about peace rather than continuing with the war,” said Dr Gao.