| At the beginning of the state’s practice of the grand strategy,it is not clear for the outside world to understand the nature of its grand strategy.However,the strategic thinking it pursues can be glimpsed through its policy practices,and then its strategic practices can be recognized.“Containment” refers to the restriction,suppression,and isolation of potential opponents by the party with a power advantage in asymmetric competition in international relations.“Containment”,as strategic thinking,requires the following foundations to become a state’s strategic choice: power preponderances,historical habits,threat perception,and strategic intentions.The goal of “containment” is to lock the opponent’s development space;isolate the opponent and push back.Containment practice means a national strategy.It relies on five practical approaches: value alliances,alliances,stable and friendly governments,cooperation based on common interests,and international regime,the most important of which is alliances based on values.However,the practical approach always faces defects: the alliance dilemma that faces the risk of being“implicated” and “abandoned”,the change of friendly governments;the decline of common interests and the independence of international regime will all lead to the failure of “containment”.This article intends to adopt a case study method,taking the Sino-US relationship in the Trump Era as a example to demonstrate the views of this article.During the Trump Era,the power balance between China and the United States continued to change which manifested in that with the rise of China,the relative strength of the United States has declined,and the hostility of the United States towards China has continued to deepen.China is facing increasing strategic pressures from the United States.The Trump’s administration revived the American“containment” thinking and put it into practice in its China policy.This is quite controversial in academic circle,while based on the US policies,guidelines,and practices toward China during the Trump Era,it can be seen that the United States has taken a path of “containment”.Therefore,the study of “containment” has both theoretical and practical significance. |
