Global experts and scholars gathered at the sixth United States-China Hong Kong Forum in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Monday and Tuesday, calling for overcoming differences between the two countries and maintaining the partners' relationship.
The annual event brought together more than 350 guests from across China, the United States, Singapore, Germany, and India to discuss topics such as deepening people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.
National Committee on U.S.-China Relations Board Chair Charlene Barshefsky, a former U.S. trade representative, rebuked the decoupling between China and the United States advocated by some U.S. think tanks.
"I think to decouple the economies is, first of all, highly unrealistic, and second of all, potentially destructive of global growth, which would be counterproductive," she said.
Late former U.S. President Richard Nixon's grandson, Christopher Nixon Cox, a board member of the Richard Nixon Foundation, expressed his hope that the diplomatic wisdom his grandfather demonstrated in breaking the ice for U.S.-China relations back then can continue to contribute to the healthy development of bilateral ties today.
"It's through that focusing on mutual interest, and then working out differences that I think he could make a very big difference today in terms of making the relationship between China and the United States even better," he said.
Participants also discussed topics such as artificial intelligence, technology governance, and supply chain resilience.
"All voices should be heard, and then together form a joint force to promote the development of relations between the two countries. I think it's fine for voices to differ and opinions to vary, but there must be one consensus, that is, China and the United States should be partners," said Shen Xin, vice president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.
Themed "Circles for Peace", the sixth U.S.-China Hong Kong Forum is organized by the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), a Hong Kong-based non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting dialogue between the two countries, and co-organized by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.
China-US relations at forum in Hong Kong calls for maintaining partners' relationship
Rally participants gathered in the Japanese capital on Aug 9, which also marked the 81st anniversary of the Nagasaki atomic bombing, to voice strong opposition to the government's push to boost defense spending and revise the war-renouncing Article 9 of the national Constitution.
Holding anti-war placards, chanting anti-war slogans, protesters warned that remilitarizing the nation would betray its pacifist ideals and endanger future generations.
"Defense spending keeps increasing. Based on Article 9 of the Constitution, Japan pledged never to wage war again, yet it keeps strengthening its military. I find this extremely dangerous. They are also trying to revise Article 9. So I believe that for the sake of future young people and children, Article 9 must never be revised. Japan decided never to repeat the mistakes of waging a war after its defeat in WWII. I think we should continue to safeguard that commitment," said a rally participant.
For many in the crowd, the shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remains a powerful moral compass as they believe that militarization offers no path forward for a nation that knows the devastation of war firsthand.
"Japan is the only country in the world to have suffered atomic bombings. Yet now Japan is going to deploy missiles. I believe Japan must never possess nuclear weapons," said another rally participant.
"I believe Japan has no future if it goes down the path of militarization. Nuclear weapons are absolutely bad for Japan," said a third woman, also a rally participant.
Beyond moral objections, some demonstrators said that Japan's economic vulnerabilities articulate that saber-rattling is a luxury the country cannot afford.
"I can't help but wonder what on earth a country with only a 36 percent food self-sufficiency rate would be fighting with. I have always been opposed to war, and I'm deeply dissatisfied with what the Takaichi administration is doing now," said another rally participant.
Other rally participants said that seeing revision of the Constitution could unleash unchecked military expansion, stripping away the very safeguards that have kept Japan at peace for eight decades.
"Article 9 of the Constitution is the key. If the nature of the Self-Defense Forces is elevated to a level beyond collective self-defense, which is explicitly written into the Constitution, it will allow the authority of the Self-Defense Forces to expand without limit. So no matter what, I want to prevent this from happening," said one more rally participant.
Japanese citizens rally against Takaichi's military expansion, constitutional revision
