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

and unexpected challenges. U.S. and Chinese
leaders therefore need to do more to find ways
to adjust to the new situations and reassure
each other from time to time to avoid war.
• Power transition is also about titanic changes
in great power relations. The most critical one
is between the United States and China. U.S.
and Chinese leaders should gain a good understanding
of what the two nations can or cannot
do with respect to the changes. Both nations’
leaders should guard against the temptation to
do the impossible, which will be a recipe for disaster
and war.
• As China continues to grow and expand, it will
find it more difficult to compromise, but will be
increasingly capable of taking stronger stands
on matters involving its extant and expanding
national interests. China should guard against
the tendency to initiate premature confrontation
with the United States.
• The United States should bear in mind that a
rising China will naturally “ask for more,” even
if Chinese leaders try to make China’s expansion
less demanding. The United States should
therefore guard against the tendency to overreact
to China’s moves.
• The struggle for the fate of Taiwan is no doubt
the most explosive issue between China and
the United States. The two great powers have
many conflicts. However, the conflict over the
fate of Taiwan is the only one overshadowed by
the “dictate of the gun”—China’s determination
to use force if peaceful means fails to bring
about unification and the U.S. commitment to
“resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion
that would jeopardize the security, or
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