The United States and China in Power Transition - Strategic Studies ...

on important issues of the day. Nevertheless, as Chinese
Premier Wen Jiabao puts, “dialogue is better than
confrontation.” 15 U.S. Secretary of State Clinton and
Treasury Secretary Geithner echo the Chinese Premier
with a little strategic touch on the U.S.-China relationship:
“Simply put, few global problems can be solved
by the United States or China alone. And few can be
solved without the United States and China together.”
16 These regular meetings will allow the two sides
to “explain” their positions on controversial issues, if
not to solve them. These deliberate efforts set the U.S.-
China power transition apart from the past ones.
In addition to these dialogues, China and the United
States have also established “hot lines.” In February
2008, the two sides signed an agreement to establish
direct phone lines between the Pentagon and Chinese
Defense Ministry. 17 In April 2008, Chinese Defense
Minister Liang Guanglie and U.S. Defense Secretary
Robert Gates made a 30-minute phone call. 18
Third, the U.S. embracement of China as a responsible
stakeholder opens the door for China to make
changes to the existing international system from
within, presumably through negotiation but not as a
disgruntled revolutionary seeking destruction of this
system from outside. 19
Fourth, although China wants to change the existing
international order, it does not have a sound alternative
design to replace it. In recent years, China
has put forward a “harmonious world” construct as
a Chinese vision for a new international order. Yet as
the analysis in the following pages shows, this harmonious
world construct does not measure up to a
workable design for a new world order. It will help
to improve the existing international order and may
“modify” U.S. international conduct, but its imple-
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