Afrasianet - Shaher Al Shaher - China-U.S. relations are no longer just a partnership or conflict, but are built on a complex web of opportunities and challenges that require wisdom and patience from both sides to maintain global balance.
All eyes are on Beijing, which will host a historic summit that brings together the Chinese and American presidents in a joint effort by both sides to manage the conflict and prevent a confrontation between the two international giants.
The summit was scheduled to take place at the end of March, but the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran prevented it, especially since the course of the war did not go as Trump had thought.
Relations between the two countries are at the center of international attention, where major economic interests intersect with deep political challenges.
Disagreements over many international political files, a struggle over precious metals and technological competition, trade wars and an arms race in preparation for a major battle that everyone is aware of.
China is no longer just a "competitor," not just a "challenge," but a "threat" according to the U.S. classifications of its enemies.
"Containing China" is a slogan put forward by successive US administrations two decades ago, but none of them succeeded in implementing it, and it is evidenced by China's great progress in various fields: political, economic, and military, and its great superiority in the field of technology and artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence has become the key word in the competition between the two giants, as it is the weapon of the age, and whoever owns it will dominate the world, given the size of the expected economic return from owning this technology, and its role in directing the weapon used in the 21st century.
The recent summit between the two presidents, held in South Korea, confirmed that dialogue remains the main way to manage differences, despite the absence of definitive solutions to existing conflicts.
China preceded Trump's visit by issuing the "Prohibition of Bans" law, which called on Chinese companies to ignore U.S. sanctions that do not comply with international laws.
The Chinese government will compensate these companies for the damages they suffer if the United States imposes sanctions on them.
The Chinese embassy in London protested Britain's imposition of sanctions on two Chinese companies that supplied components to Russia for the drone industry, deeming it interference in China's trade issues, something Beijing no longer accepts.
Silence on US sanctions is no longer acceptable, and Beijing is now able to defend its interests with its soft power and economic leverage.
For Beijing, the United States is a "trading partner and a bitter adversary," and managing the conflict with it requires a policy that is managed with the skill and wisdom of the Chinese policymaker, not with the mentality of an American cowboy.
The strategic conflict between the two countries does not eliminate the need for continuous dialogue between them.
"Power entails more responsibility," a wisdom taken from Chinese political thought, suggests the need to "manage power" more rationally in international relations.
China-U.S. relations are no longer just a partnership or conflict, but are built on a complex web of opportunities and challenges that require wisdom and patience from both sides to maintain global balance.
China: The Absent Present
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi's visit to Beijing came in response to an invitation from the Chinese side, during which Beijing listened to the Iranian point of view and Tehran heard its perceptions of resolving the crisis.
Dialogue with China, and knowing the limits of its support for Tehran in the Security Council after the United States and a number of Arab countries submitted a draft resolution in the Security Council calling on Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, and calling for this resolution to be under Chapter VII, which authorizes those countries to use force.
China's veto in the Security Council is important for Tehran, amid fears that Russia's position will change and its penchant for making a "deal" with Trump that would end the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Two hours after Araqchi's arrival, Trump announced the halt to "Operation Freedom" in the Strait of Hormuz, an operation that the US secretary of state had been talking about only three hours earlier as taking on a more humanitarian rather than military character.
China's position came in support of Tehran in its right to self-defense, stressing Beijing's adherence to the strategic partnership signed between the two sides.
Beijing's demands to open navigation in the Strait of Hormuz stem from its view that the closure of the strait came in response to the US-Israeli aggression against Iran, which must stop immediately.
The statement stressed the importance of formulating a "regional security system" in which the countries of the region participate, without external interference, referring to the role of the United States in fueling conflicts in the world.
Minister Araqchi's call with the Saudi Foreign Minister after the end of the talks in Beijing reflects the importance of cooperation and coordination between the two sides, especially since Saudi Arabia had informed Trump of its refusal to use its territory in the "Freedom Operation" that he intended to carry out in the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump's visit to China will not be easy, given the widening of the gap between the two sides, and the size and intertwining of differences, which makes managing the conflict the ceiling of ambition for both sides.
The visit will be followed by a visit by Russian President Putin to China, and Beijing is preparing to host the "Arab-Chinese Summit" expected to be held at the end of next month.
All the data indicate that Beijing is preparing to be the capital of international decision-making, but this capital will be to spread peace, not to broadcast wars and chaos.
From Beijing's point of view, political perceptions and positions are gradual rather than opposite, and the most just is a mediator between the just and the unjust.
U.S. Strategic Desperation
In a world of accelerating economic and security transformations, the two countries need to balance strategic competition with the need for the stability of the international system, recognizing that cooperation in areas such as security, trade, and counterterrorism is indispensable.
Trump wanted to come to China with the cards of Venezuela and Iran, but Tehran turned the equation upside down, turning his dreams into nightmares expressed by his conflicting tweets, and his frantic quest to find a way out of this war, which would preserve the remaining support within the American society.
Talking about repeating the Venezuelan model in Iran is no longer possible, and American approaches have become the "Vietnamese model" and its bad memory in American history.
The American press went to compare what is happening in the Strait of Hormuz to what happened in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964, where 58,000 American soldiers were killed in Vietnam and the United States was depleted in a war that lasted for more than a decade.
Trump's red lines are no longer even orange, and no one believes what he says about the course of the war, especially since he had talked about the destruction of Tehran's entire force since the first day of the war.
Trump's frequent appearances and near-daily statements about the course of the war raise many questions about what is left of the American "state of institutions."
The war on Iran has not achieved its goals, and the return of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz appears to have become the ceiling of the ambitions of the United States and its allies in the region.
The war proved that the problem was not "America's power," but the way it managed it. The arrogance of power has made it into mistakes that cannot be corrected, but is paying the price for them as akin to sins.
America's allies in the region (Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Pakistan) are seeking to form an "Islamic NATO," that is, they want to build a security system away from it.
The irony is that those who want to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons are the only country in the world that used such a weapon at the end of World War II.
Intelligence "uncertainty" and strategic "distraction" have led the United States and Israel to this catastrophic failure, according to U.S. and Israeli reports.
