In: Far Eastern affairs: a Russian journal on China, Japan and Asia-Pacific Region ; a quarterly publication of the Institute for Far Eastern Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Heft 3, S. 63-69
The article examines Russian-Turkish engagement in the context of resolving the conflict in Syria. The interests of both countries in the SAR, the goals that the states intend to achieve and the existing obstacles were analyzed. Proposals were formulated to bring Russian-Turkish cooperation in the Syrian track to a more positive level.
By the time Donald Trump came to the White House, the American political elites and expert community had developed a consensual perception that China's strategy was aimed at challenging the U.S. dominance and threatening its national interests. The United States Strategic Approach to the People's Republic of China, adopted by the Trump Republican Administration but reflecting a bipartisan position, marked the most dramatic shift in policy towards China since Richard Nixon. The main change was the recognition of the competitive nature of the U.S. – China relations, which resulted in the development and subsequent implementation of a competitive approach to relations with the PRC. This approach is largely based on the experience and theoretical concepts developed during confrontation with the Soviet Union but there are significant differences primarily due to the limitations imposed by interdependence of the American and Chinese economies, which did not exist between the U.S. and the USSR. The first part of the article reveals the concept and principles of the competitive approach, a commitment to which has been reiterated by the Biden administration. It is stated that such approach aims at forcing the PRC to change its strategy that threatens American interests. This goal is achieved by applying a complex pressure on the military and strategic, socioeconomic and politico-ideological strands through implementation of four types of competitive strategies identified by the U.S. expert community: strategies of denial, "cost-imposing" strategies, attacking the enemy's strategy, and attacking the adversary's political system. Their implementation is illustrated predominantly in the cases of the American–Soviet confrontation. Using the active "burden-shifting" strategy as an example, the second (practical) part of the study offers the most recent evidence of the "cost-imposing" strategy based on the principle of exploiting an enemy's vulnerabilities in the most efficient way. It demonstrates how Washington's approach to Afghanistan was transformed within such a strategy. The reasons for the formation, development process and the main ideas of the strategy are described in detail. It is acknowledged that the close-out of the U.S. – led security mission in Afghanistan was largely driven by the intention to shift the responsibility for the security in the region to the PRC. It is stated that there are no guaranteed tools for the Chinese leadership to counter the U.S. competitive approach, and the PRC is not enough prepared for a full-scale contest with the United States. The study concludes that it would be better for Beijing to delay transition to open competition in the bilateral relations.
This article reviews the key doctrinal document that has shaped the U.S. policy towards the PRC – the United States Strategic Approach to the People's Republic of China. The author explores the political principles of the approach, which reflect the fundamental perception of both China itself and its strategy by the American establishment. The article examines the principles defining the American understanding of the PRC's place in the Indo-Pacific region, the goals of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC), the U.S. attitudes to the Chinese domestic governance model and narratives. It offers a scientific rationale for the principles under analysis, and demonstrates how the American approach to China was transformed by following them. It is stated that these principles stem out of the shift from the strategy of engagement pursued in the 1990s and 2000s to the competitive approach. The new approach, it is noted, reflects Washington's response to Beijing's policy of recent decades and is presented as a counterstrategy to China's thirty-year-old grand strategy. The author identifies the range of experts whose ideas and proposals have created the basis for the principles reviewed. It is indicated that the provisions of the strategy approved by President D. Trump were bipartisan, and were taken by the Biden administration as a basis for the formation of its policy towards China. The article concludes that the redefinition of the American political principles has caused a revision of the entire set of relations with China and directly affected the U.S. policy in other areas of their interaction with the PRC: ideology, security, trade and economic relations.