Second footnote to the post titled “What Xi’s China Wants”

And in a word, deference. What Xi’s China seeks from the United States is deference above all else. And deference, to put it simply, is a combination of giving someone space and some room to breathe while maintaining good and friendly relations with them. One should also note that it takes lots of sophistication and smarts to want deference from someone. For deference to be the key demand on the part of China is a testament to China’s sophistication and smarts. Nor is everyone capable of rendering deference to others. But that is perhaps what China wants from the United States above all else, namely, deference. That is not to say that American culture is void or empty of any sort of concept of deference. The reality is that some concept of deference exists in all cultures, even in American culture. In Western culture in general, it is liberalism in its original, unadulterated form which makes deference to the individual the core tenet or value of Western culture. Arguably, it is some sort of deference which China seeks from the United States above all else.