Valdai Club

Trump’s personality is unpredictable, the stability and continuity of his policies are far from guaranteed, and the possibility of policy reversals remains ever-present, writes Zhao Huasheng in the second installment of his two-part series analyzing the seismic shifts in US foreign policy. The first part is available here.

Despite widespread anticipation of possible changes in US-Russia relations in the wake of Trump’s return to power, the shift has been more drastic and rapid than anyone could have imagined, writes Zhao Huasheng in the first installment of his two-part series analyzing the seismic changes in US foreign policy.

The core problem between China and the United States is that the two countries have very different ideas about how to view each other’s existence and how to get along with each other, in other words, there are substantive differences in their mutual identification, modes of coexistence, and principles of national relations, Zhao Huasheng writes.

All the major powers are active in Central Asia, including China, Russia, the United States, Europe, India and Japan. This would not be a problem for the Central Asian countries if the major powers were on good terms, but the reality is that the relationship between the major powers in Central Asia is complicated, writes Zhao Huasheng.

Since internal problems present the greatest risk, the main way to maintain security and stability in Central Asia should be the elimination of internal problems, even if the barrier to external dangers should be built first and foremost at home. In fact, the Central Asian countries have become increasingly aware of it, and the reforms underway in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are aimed at this end, writes Zhao Huasheng.

After 30 years of development, against the backdrop of tremendous changes in world politics and economics, the Central Asian countries have a strong desire to embrace innovation, change, development and modernisation, writes Valdai Club expert Zhao Huasheng.

The SCO is the main experimental and practical area for China’s concepts of a new international order, and it is also a model for it. The main concepts proposed by China are reflected in the practice of the SCO, and in a certain sense, it can be said that it is the prototype for the new international order envisioned by China, writes Valdai Club expert Zhao Huasheng.

Moscow’s greatest success in the near abroad will be the transformation of the region into a real strategic resource, and its biggest failure will be its transformation into a strategic burden for Russia, writes Valdai Club expert Zhao Huasheng.

Political thinking and economic logics are both serve as important driving forces for Eurasian integration, but sometimes they contradict each other, which restricts the Eurasian integration from going forward quickly. This is also one of the important reasons why it is difficult for the Eurasian integration to achieve a major breakthrough, writes Zhao Huasheng, Professor at the Institute of International Studies, Fudan University

As a strategic conception, the Indo-Pacific strategy is perceived with certain difference by its major participants, including the U.S., India, Japan, Australia and ASEAN states. That is to say, under the common term of Indo-Pacific strategy, these states see it differently; their priorities and goals are not quite the same; and their attitudes and approaches are differentiated.