Clash or coexist? Defusing US-China tensions remains uncertain, even unlikely, analysts say
- ‘The concept of peaceful coexistence is very laudable as a long-term aspirational goal. But I think it’s a bridge too far in today’s environment,’ one expert concludes
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Beijing promises not to take Taiwan by force. Washington vows not to work towards overthrowing the Chinese Communist Party.
These are among the difficult, perhaps politically impossible, steps that would be needed to avoid a US-China war and approximate some version of coexistence, according to former CIA, Pentagon and other strategic experts.
And many are convinced that conflict is more likely than not.
“The concept of peaceful coexistence is very laudable as a long-term aspirational goal. But I think it’s a bridge too far in today’s environment,” said Dennis Wilder, a foreign service professor at Georgetown University who oversaw the East Asia and Pacific desk in 2015 and 2016 for the Central Intelligence Agency.
“It is a strategic competition that we have to be careful does not intensify to the point that it ignites a new Cold War or World War III.”
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