On March 26, 2023, Berlingske, a Danish newspaper, published an interview with Professor Da Wei, director of the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University and vice chairman of China Forum, in which he shared his views on China’s relations with the United States and the West, its development path, the Ukraine crisis, and human rights.

Peace, trade, and educational exchanges between China and the US are mutually beneficial, but it now looks like it is difficult for the two sides to move their relations in a positive direction, as the US is constantly suppressing and provoking China and interfering in its internal affairs, said Da. Unlike China’s highly coherent strategy, the US strategy toward China has shifted from engagement to strategic competition, which is still escalating. If the US ever cuts ties with China, it will be not only China but also the US that suffers, and it will be the latter, rather than the former, that has isolated itself.

China will not change its system just because the US doesn’t like it, and the idea that China should accept the Western system is colonialist and coercive, said Da. It is also a distorted and unfair statement that China’s system is a threat to the US, and it’s time for the West to realize that not all countries should be exactly like it.

Unlike what many in the West think, China is not taking sides on the Ukraine crisis, Da Wei explained. Many Chinese sympathize with Russia not because they support the conflict, but because they have experienced Western hegemony themselves.