China will not benefit from confrontation with India: James Steinberg, Former US Deputy Secretary of States

NEW DELHI: Advising China to act responsibly, former US Deputy Secretary of States James Steinberg today said Beijing should understand that it will not benefit from confrontation with its neighbours, like India and Japan.

He said Chinese leadership should introspect on their future strategy and the country should act responsibly given its huge economic and military capabilities.

"I don't know what the Chinese leadership is up to... confronting India and Japan, especially when they have been trying to build strong bilateral relations...The Chinese leadership must understand, it will not benefit them in the long run. The leadership must introspect on their future strategies," Steinberg told PTI.

He was responding to questions on how he viewed the recent Chinese provocations with India in Ladakh and with Japan in South China Sea.

He said China should make it clear what their long time intentions are and it should assure its neighbours about that.

Steinberg, presently the Dean of the Maxwell School, Syracuse University and University Professor of Social Science, International Affairs and Law, served as Deputy Secretary of State, and acted as the principal Deputy to Secretary Hillary Clinton.

He also served as Deputy National Security Advisor to former US President Clinton from 1996 to 2000.

At a seminar on 'East Asian Security Summit, Steinberg said the rise of North Korea as a nuclear power is a security challenge for all the countries in the region, including China since strategic issues become a priority then.

"As for China, the new leadership must make sure that the rise of China is peaceful and not threatening to anyone. The US would never want to contain China within it territory.

"What I feel the problem here is that China has always been under the impression since history that they were forced to abandon their own territories to pressures from western powers due to their weakness. Now that they are powerful enough, they wish to reclaim them by various means which should not be the case," he said.

Noting that China is a huge economic and military power, he said India would never want another power to rise in region "which is normal" and that the US would never want to tie up with India to contain China that will destabilise the strategic balance.

"India and China should both grow peacefully. I am happy that India is a part of the 'east Asia summit'. It should not be viewed by China as a means to contain their rise but more of a cooperation.

"We expect the ASEAN to be more powerful economically to ensure stability in the region," he said.