Lately, the United States has started to tighten visa requirements for Chinese students, experts and scholars wishing to travel there for study, academic visits or scientific research.

Also, Chinese experts and scholars, including naturalized citizens who have lived in the US for years, have been subject to all kinds of surveillance and persecution. Li Xiaojiang and his wife, for example, both tenured professors at Emory University, were fired abruptly and their team dismissed because of their collaboration with Jinan University in Guangdong province in life science research. Evidence suggests it will become increasingly difficult for Chinese scholars to travel to the US for academic purposes and people-to-people exchanges and cooperation in scientific research between the two countries will suffer greater disruptions.

Such episodes reinforce Henry Kissinger's prediction that Sino-US relations cannot go back to where they once were.

Sino-US relations are the most important and delicate bilateral relations in the world today. Their evolution does not only impact the developmental and security interests of both countries - global peace and development and the future of human civilization are also at stake.

And right now those ties are going through a turbulent phase. But how did we get there?

The main reason is the rise of emerging economies in recent years, a shift in the global power balance unwelcome by the West in general and the US in particular. China became the second-largest economy in the world, contributing far more to global growth than any developed country. It also enhanced and unleashed its potential in science, technology and innovation, playing an extraordinary role in spearheading human progress with growing impact and leadership in regional and global affairs.

By contrast, even though the US is the No. 1 superpower in the world, its institutions and mechanisms - put in place at the time of its founding - are evidently obsolete. They now suffer from malicious rivalry between the two major parties, mounting political and legal issues, and enormous socioeconomic challenges. The US has a conflictive relationship with the rest of the world, including with traditional allies and the international governance system that it helped to build and now dominates. As a result, the US has fewer tools and powers than before when it comes to international affairs.

Conservative and extremist US officials thus paint China as the biggest strategic competitor, making it the main target in the US' next round of global strategic offense.

The state of Sino-US relations, described as a "quasi-crisis" or "new Cold War", has given rise to talk of a possible "decoupling". For the US, this means putting US-China trade on pause. This will, in turn, halt bilateral exchanges and cooperation in finance, science and technology, culture, security and other areas. The idea is to alienate China from the world, specifically from shared human progress. The US government recently escalated the trade war by ordering US companies to leave China en masse. The order was not followed, but there is growing risk that "decoupling" can go from a mere concept to action.

Some in China argue that we should weaken links with the US, especially people-to-people exchanges and cooperation. But these positions stem from the same irrational logic the US follows. They reflect the Soviet Union-era practice that advocated building parallel markets and independent systems for full-on confrontation in diametrically opposed camps. That would surely bring about disastrous consequences.

Antagonism and conflicts because of competing interests between China and the US are historical in origin, long term in nature and thus hard to resolve. And yet, China should continue to engage in people-to-people exchanges and cooperation with the US, or even take the initiative in doing so.

This is necessary, as the US will have the upper hand in this long, winding and historic tussle. Apart from being a strategic power, the US is also an economic, scientific, educational and cultural superpower, and home to the best talent and cutting-edge innovations.

There are many reasons why the US got to where it is today. One of them is its emphasis on science and technology, education, innovation, entrepreneurship, people-to-people exchanges and cooperation, allowing it to attract talent from around the world, and leverage and even poach intellectual resources from abroad.

In other words, the economic and scientific achievements of the US are not the private property of US monopolies. They are the accumulation of outstanding civilizational achievements of human societies in general. Therefore, in the area of people-to-people exchanges, we can learn a lot from the US. Socialism is about making progress on the basis of amazing achievements of all societies, and we must forge a new path for ourselves in the future through exchange and mutual learning with other civilizations.

As China moves increasingly faster to the global center stage, people-to-people exchanges and cooperation with other countries have been on the rise, becoming an important cause for the Party, country and society as a whole.

In a world with fierce competition in science and technology and a raging war for talent, it is vitally important to continue to engage in cooperation in human resources and scientific research programs. We should expand and deepen people-to-people exchanges with the US and, in particular, not cease, pause or weaken exchanges and cooperation in education, science and technology and between think tanks. There are many reasons for this: to fulfill the practical needs of our socioeconomic development and modernization, to stabilize and improve Sino-US relations in the long run, and to achieve the noble aspirations of building a community with a shared future for humanity. We should start seeing it as the top choice for a partner in international cooperation in science and technology, education, talent management, innovation and entrepreneurship. We cannot afford to lose faith because of the enormity of the task.

The author is former vice-minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

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