Page 158 - 《国际安全研究）》2020年第2期

Journal of International Security Studies

Abstract

3 China-US Security Contradictions in the Asia-Pacific Region:
Evolution and Logic
LI Yan and DA Wei
[Abstract] In recent years, security contradictions between China and the United
States in the Asia-Pacific region have continued to ferment and the two countries have
been caught up in fully fledged confrontations in terms of security interests and
concepts as well as a comprehensive and long-term vision of the regional security
order, which has exerted great negative influence over the peaceful coexistence
between the two countries. A huge divergence of views over the regional security
order and hot issues are the main manifestation of China-US security contradictions in
the Asia-Pacific region. Their security contradictions that loom larger in the
Asia-Pacific region are fundamentally due to the changes in regional power
configuration and the ensuing transfer of power, which gives full expression to “partial
balance of power” in the context of the gap between their overall national strengths.
This partial balance of power is manifested in the following three aspects: (1) the
“dual structural balance” with China being a regional economic center and the US a
regional security center, (2) the “balance of land power and sea power” with China
being a land power and the US a sea power, and (3) the emerging balance of power
between China and the US in China’s offshore areas. In this process, poor
management of security contradictions and the enhanced threat perception of both
sides have intensified contradictions and confrontations, accelerating the formation of
a security dilemma. Along with the growth and decline of power as well as policy
interactions, the security dilemma between China and the US in the Asia-Pacific
region has further aggravated with a shift from a classic security dilemma to a
“state-induced security dilemma”. Although the security contradictions between the
two countries in the Asia-Pacific region will still be constrained by structural
components, it is those factors like the future of economic interdependence, the
changing technology-driven military deterrence, ideological competition, and
non-traditional security cooperation that determine whether the existing security
contradictions will lead to conflicts or not.
[Keywords] China-US relations, security contradictions, security dilemma in the
Asia-Pacific region, evolution and logic
[Authors] LI Yan, Deputy Director and Associate Research Fellow, Institute
of American Studies, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations
(Beijing, 100081); DA Wei, Professor and Assistant President, University of
International Relations (Beijing, 100091).

23 Exploring the New Paradigm of China-US Relations and Global
Security Governance
AN Gang, WANG Yiming and HU Xin
[Abstract] Since President Donald Trump took office, the US strategy towards
China has been carrying a negative tone in all dimensions, shifting gradually from
“engagement” to “confinement”. China and the US are witnessing a “new
situation” in which strategic competition between an merging power and a hegemon

· 156 ·