Zheng Yongnian on China-US realism and battling for the upper hand before the next summit

Zheng Yongnian is a political scientist in China and a government adviser. His academic work is mainly about contemporary China, particularly politics, the country’s transformation and its external relations.

This interview first appeared in SCMP Plus. For other interviews in the Open Questions series, click here.

Many have offered a lukewarm assessment of the Xi-Trump summit in Washington, citing the lack of a breakthrough. What is your take?

There are two primary views right now. One is nihilism, which holds that China and the US are ultimately bound to fight for global dominance – that the world isn’t big enough for two superpowers. The other is idealism, which expects all differences to be resolved in a single step.