China-US dialogue displays shared will to work together

The Korean Peninsula, the South China Sea, terrorism, military-to-military cooperation … the list goes on. Any of such topics of bilateral, regional and global concern raised at the table of the maiden ChinaUS Diplomatic and Security Dialogue could have consumed the daylong session. Especially, the Korean Peninsula issue, as the tragic death of Otto Warmbier added fuel to public outrage at the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, raising concerns the dialogue might get mired in who is to do what next.

Such worries proved unfounded, however. And the opening installment of the brand-new mechanism of China-US engagement was successful, sustaining the constructive atmosphere from the summit between President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in early April, and adding optimism to the three other components — economic, law enforcement and cybersecurity, and social and culture — of the China-US Comprehensive Dialogue.

Beijing and Washington have plenty of thorny, pressing tasks at hand, many of which can’t be accomplished without both being involved, and committed simultaneously. That Xi and Trump seem to get along well and China-US relations have so far fared well in the Trump era are reassuring signs that essential lessons about this particular relationship have been learned.

Many longstanding issues keep haunting China-US relations not because Beijing and Washington lack the wisdom, or tools to resolve them, but because they are lacking the mutual trust and political will to work together.

It would certainly be misleading to assume Beijing and Washington will be happy together hereafter, though both pledged goodwill and collaboration. However, considering the arduous job of forging mutual trust, there was nothing more to expect from Wednesday’s dialogue. And, at the end of the day, what truly matters is their consensus to manage and control their differences on the basis of mutual respect.

In fairness to both parties, Beijing and Washington have made attempts to jointly handle issues of common concern, including the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. But more often than not, they keep getting ensnared in their differences at critical junctures.

Such a state of affairs may be understandable between a rising power and an incumbent one, which is how China and the US are portrayed in the age-old framework of a big-power struggle.

So the diplomatic pragmatism the Chinese and US leaders have demonstrated so far is welcome as it may usher in more benign interaction that cultivates goodwill via case-specific collaboration. For their interests are not intrinsically contradictory, it is their mutual suspicions that they need to overcome.

The latest dialogue just affirmed their shared will to try and do so.

Wearing a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles and speaking in a pretentiously convincing manner, the woman, in her late 60s, has nothing to prove her identity and expertise.

In her commercials, she belongs to at least three ethnic groups — Han, Mongolian and Miao — and describes herself as an expert from more than four prestigious medical research institutes and societies.

The target audience of senior citizens and poorer residents living in remote and less-developed areas lap up what she says as true. Because all the TV stations broadcasting the commercials are owned by the government, they take it for granted that the claims made in the advertisements are truthful.

The advertisers have exploited senior citizens’ gullibility and their lack of media literacy to make money.

None of the TV stations, which make huge revenues from such advertising, have ever conducted any investigations before giving a green light to these advertisements, that exaggerate the curative effects of the “medicines” they promote.

And even though these products cannot cure their diseases, they may not make them worse or cause any negative side effects (edible starch is the main raw ingredient), so few consumers complain.

Worse, none of the institutes and societies the woman said she belongs to have taken the trouble to contradict her claims.

The spiral of silence, based on the indifference of related institutes, the dereliction of duty by the media broadcasters and a gullible audience, sets the stage for such advertisements to continue undisturbed.