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China's top diplomats will meet US Secretary of State and White House National Security Adviser in Alaska on Friday.
Due to a series of offensive words and deeds by the US, Chinese public has little expectations that this dialogue can achieve any substantive results. Chinese society as a whole is prepared for greater tensions between China and US.
The meeting is a platform for strategic dialogue rather than a stage for the US to put unilateral pressures on China. Any idea that US could dominate this dialogue is illusory. Their perceived strengths could have been used for other things, but they cannot shape China's attitude on issues concerning China's core interests.
Could they ask China to withdraw the national security law for Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, or to recall the decision made by National People's Congress to amend and improve Hong Kong electoral system? Every Chinese can tell the US that this is simply wishful thinking.
China believes that communication is always necessary because the US has an overall misjudgment about China. China wants the US to gradually understand some of its basic positions and the sources of its confidence in defending them.
First, China has no geopolitical ambitions in the Asia-Pacific region. China's development is driven by the desire of 1.4 billion people to pursue a better livelihood. Further satisfying this desire is the fundamental focus of China's political governance. China does not believe that it has the ability, or that it's necessary to pursue development by imperialist expansion.
Second, China has explored a set of domestic governance methods that suit its national conditions. There are some ideological differences between China and the West, but China has no hostility toward the West. China has, since ancient times, always been an exponent of keeping harmony in diversity. The US initiated the strategic containment of China, which has deteriorated China's security environment, forced China to speed up development of its military power and carry out tit-for-tat ideological struggle.
Third, China will never accept US interference in its internal affairs. How US consumes the so-called human rights domestically is its own business. China will never give foreign forces a window to exercise long-arm jurisdiction on its internal affairs. What China can do is to help US understand China's political logic and the moral basis for all its governance measures. Such a dialogue does not mean that China is likely to yield to any US pressure.
Fourth, it is true that China has territorial disputes with some of its neighbors, but China's consistent position on these disputes is to resolve them peacefully, except Taiwan. China has always advocated that territorial disputes should not become the dominant aspect of bilateral relations and should not interfere with cooperation between China and other countries. China is firm in its position of managing territorial disputes.
Fifth, it is China's sacred right to develop. China has never contemplated as a geopolitical goal the possibility of overtaking the US in economic growth in a few years, nor has China ever considered replacing US hegemony with "Chinese hegemony."
Sixth, the Chinese are confident that they are capable of defending their own national security, and no matter how hard the US tries, it cannot contain China. If USA is willing to coexist and cooperate with China in peace, China welcomes that and will work hard to make that relationship work. If USA is determined to engage in confrontation, China will fight to the end.
It is important to point out that US has seriously overestimated the matching degree between its national power and its strategic fantasy of containing China.