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China, US discuss their
relationship
By Jing-dong Yuan
United States Deputy Secretary of State
Robert Zoellick arrives in Beijing on Monday for
the inaugural US-China senior-level dialogue with
his counterpart, Vice Minister Dai Bingguo, and
senior officials from the State Development and
Reform Commission. The first of its kind between
the two countries, the dialogue will cover a broad
range of political, security and economic issues.
The meeting comes at a time when
Washington and Beijing need to reassess and define
the nature of Sino-US relations, even as the two
great powers find it necessary to cooperate in
certain areas while remain suspicious of each
other in others.
Since
September 11, China and the US have cooperated
closely on seeking solutions to the North Korean
nuclear crisis, fought the global war on terrorism
and promoted regional peace and stability from the
sub-continent to the Asia-Pacific. Former
secretary of state Colin Powell described the
relationship as at its best in 30 years. That
assessment was endorsed by the Chinese
leadership.
However, over the past few months, the
bilateral relationship has come under increasing
strain. Beijing was chastised for its currency
manipulation that kept the exchange rate
arbitrarily low for unfair trade advantage; this
was blamed for the huge US trade deficits with
China and the loss of American jobs.
US
intelligence and defense officials sounded alarm
over and raised questions about China's increasing
defense spending. The Pentagon report on Chinese
military power suggests that Beijing's ambitions
for sphere of influence go beyond the Taiwan
Strait. Congress views the Chinese state-run China
National Offshore Oil's bid to acquire Unocal of
the US as a potential threat to US energy
security.
Likewise, Beijing is also
concerned with what many Chinese analysts call US
hedging policy toward China. While Washington
publicly pledges to build a cooperative,
constructive and candid relationship with China,
it also is strengthening its military alliance
with Japan, upgrading its defense ties with Taiwan
and exerting pressure for Taipei to purchase US
weapons while strongly warning against the
European Union lifting of the 16-year-old arms
embargo on China.
These worrying signs,
some of which reflect the thinking of
neo-conservatives in America while others are
driven by domestic politics, stoke nationalist
sentiments in China. They not only put US-China
relations under stress but also pose serious
threats to regional and global security.
That the world's most important bilateral
relationship is susceptible to periodic swings and
instability is symptomatic of a deeper and
fundamental problem: the lack of a clear
definition of the nature of this relationship.
The upcoming US-China global dialogue
should begin to tackle this problem. President
George W Bush recently described the relationship
as complex. China is a rising power. Its economy
is growing rapidly, as are its political influence
and military power. Some suggest that China is
following the paths of the Weimar Germany and
militant Japan of the 1930s and the changing
balance of power will greatly destabilize the
international system.
But the analogies
are as much wrong-headed as they ill-intentioned.
Weimar Germany was seeking to change the status
quo because of its deep resentment of the
constraints imposed on it by the 1919 Paris
Accord. Japan embarked on military aggression to
seize resources it feared it would be denied.
China's peaceful rise in the past 20 years, on the
contrary, has been possible largely because of its
successful integration into the existing
international political and economic system.
History is always useful in giving
meanings to the present and speculating about the
future. But history is not destiny. China need
not, and could ill afford to, copy the history
books of other rising powers in the past. Such an
undertaking would be the unraveling of its
continued economic success and whatever political
influence and goodwill it has been able to
accumulate over the past decade through
painstaking and patient diplomacy.
This
understanding of China's basic orientation should
be the starting point to define the Sino-US
relationship and what the senior-level dialogue
could hope to accomplish. It is only natural that
Beijing and Washington have different interests
and priorities. But a normal relationship based on
mutual respect and candid exchanges of views will
provide a better chance for both to seek
clarification and avoid misunderstanding, promote
cooperation while managing disputes, and
contribute to regional and international security.
Dr Jing-dong Yuan is research
director of the East Asia Non-Proliferation
Program at the Center for Non-Proliferation
Studies and an associate professor of
international policy studies at the Monterey
Institute of International Studies.
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
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