On April 19, 2024, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng visited Harvard University and had a fireside chat with Founding Dean of Harvard Kennedy School Prof. Graham Allison.

Ambassador Xie noted that there is indeed competition between China and the United States. The Chinese people do not shy away from competition, but any competition must be fair. It should be like competing for excellence in a racing field, not beating one another in a wrestling ring. What the U.S. side is having in mind, though, is not competition, but bullying. By slapping sanctions on Chinese companies according to its own domestic law, the U.S. side is basically keeping Chinese players out of the game even before it starts. The U.S. side has also forced other countries to ban exports of certain devices and technologies to China, for instance, lithography machines. This is just like asking others to run barefooted or on straw slippers while one wears high-tech track shoes in a race. But even when barefooted, some top Chinese players, such as producers of electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and photovoltaic products, have managed to take the lead. The U.S. side, however, then accuses them of being “overcompetent”, causing “overcapacity” and posing a threat to other contestants, demanding they quit the game. This is not fair.

Ambassador Xie further pointed out that competition is not the entirety of the China-U.S. relationship, as the two countries have cooperation in many areas. The relationship should not be simply defined by competition. If we allow competition to dominate China-U.S. relations, it would only give rise to strategic risks. No one would come out as a winner.

It would be self-deluding to suppress and encircle China in the name of competition on one hand, and try to manage competition and avoid direct conflict on the other. If we only aim at the minimum goal of avoiding conflict in China-U.S. relations, then we would not be far away from going into one. This is like racing cars on a cliff's edge, where conceited drivers are most likely to end up falling into the abyss below. No amount of guardrails would be enough to put a floor under the relationship then.