Recently, US President's National Security Advisor Sullivan admitted at an event of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington that "the United States has realized that decades of efforts to shape or change China, whether overtly or covertly, have not been successful."

This is the official admission by the United States that its "transformation" strategy towards China over the past few decades has ended in failure. What disappoints these Americans is that China has always insisted on taking its own path, has made great progress in economic and social development, has taken the country's governance to a new level, and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has entered an irreversible historical process.

In the face of facts, the United States must adjust its perception of China, let go of its obsession with "shaping or changing" China, and find a way to get along with China on an equal footing. As President Xi Jinping said, China and the United States are on different paths. This difference is not new and will continue to exist in the future. An important rule for China and the United States to get along is to recognize and respect this difference, rather than forcing uniformity and trying to change or even subvert the other party's system.

In international politics, the United States has always had an illusion: it believes that it is a unique "city on a hill" with the right to rule the world and the obligation to teach other countries to follow the so-called "rules and order" it has established. Former US President Clinton once said: "By joining the World Trade Organization, China will not only agree to import more products, but also agree to import our most cherished values..." Some American strategists firmly believe that after the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, China will be the next one. However, what people see is that China has become the world's second largest economy in the following 20 years and has successfully embarked on a path of modernization with Chinese characteristics.

In fact, instead of asking "Why did the United States fail to change China?", it is better to think more about "Why do you think you can change China?" British scholar Martin Jacques pointed out that the key reason why the United States repeatedly fails to understand, see through, and judge China is that it ignores China's history and culture. He published an article titled "Understanding China - The West has misjudged China for decades" in the Los Angeles Times, pointing out: "People take it for granted that the process of modernization will inevitably lead to Westernization. However, it is not only the market, competition and technology that affect modernization, but also history and culture, and China's history and culture are very different from any Western country." Jacques said that the United States and other Western countries always hope to evaluate China roughly according to their own standards - sometimes even the only standards, but are unwilling to invest energy to understand and respect the wisdom and uniqueness of its national culture, history and traditions. "This is undoubtedly wrong."

In the final analysis, the "theory of superiority of civilization" is mixed with the Cold War mentality, which makes the United States overestimate itself and underestimate the Chinese people's consciousness of controlling their own destiny and pursuing independent development.

“The United States always overestimates its ability to determine China’s development path,” American scholars Kurt Campbell and Eli Ratner wrote in the article “Thinking about China.” Just as the fantasy that "economic opening up will Westernize China" is doomed to failure, the attempt to contain and suppress China's development trajectory will also not be able to change China's development trajectory. No matter what choice China makes, it will and will only be made independently based on national development and people's well-being. choose.

As major countries with systemic influence on global peace and development, how China and the United States coexist is of vital importance to the future and destiny of mankind, and hindering China's independent development is like the famous King Canute in medieval Europe trying to stop the tide. In a commentary titled "China is right in the face of US suppression," the Financial Times said that the United States needs a strategy to face the "ever-present China," and "betting on China's surrender is not a strategy."