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23-09-05, 04:26
International Herald Tribune
New China-U.S. dialogue could strengthen complex ties
By David Lague International Herald Tribune
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2005
BEIJING A blunt but nonconfrontational exchange this week between the United States and China suggested that a strategic dialogue that began between the two countries last month may succeed in easing tensions in a relationship that is frequently troubled.
The strategic dialogue is intended to resolve longstanding differences between Beijing and Washington over human rights, Taiwan, trade and weapons control. The exchange between senior officials this week also included a reference to the two countries' opposing positions on the issue of Iran's nuclear program.
Some political analysts said the overall dialogue and exchange of remarks this week indicated that the United States and China appeared to understand that their relationship was complex and difficult but could be managed.
"I think both sides are settled on that as some kind of agreement," said Lu Yiyi, a senior research fellow on China at Chatham House, a London-based international affairs institute. "There are going to be problems and they are not going to be great friends, but there is probably not going to be conflict, either."
In a forthright speech Wednesday, Robert Zoellick, the U.S. deputy secretary of state, laid out the Bush administration's most detailed assessment to date of Chinese-American ties, describing a complex relationship that involves elements of increasingly close economic and diplomatic cooperation alongside the potential for serious conflict.
Zoellick's call for China to embrace an open, democratic government and play a more responsible role in the international community comes at a time when ties between Washington and Beijing have been relatively constructive.
This week in Beijing, China guided the latest round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program to an agreement on principles that might be a step toward a settlement.
That followed a meeting on Sept. 13 between President George W. Bush and President Hu Jintao of China in New York that both sides said had been useful in strengthening ties.
However, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, rejected Zoellick's appeal for political change and was also straightforward in insisting that Washington should mind its own business when it comes to Chinese domestic politics. "Internal affairs should be handled by the government and people of each country," he said. "We should respect another country's right to choose its own development road."
Defending the Chinese political system, Qin said that advances in economic development had delivered rising living standards for the Chinese people. He also defended China's foreign policy and pledged that it would continue to meet its international obligations.
Although the divisive issues between Washington and Beijing are not new, Zoellick's speech in New York to the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations could be seen as a broad agenda for the strategic dialogue that he has been assigned to lead for the Bush administration. The first round in the dialogue was held in Beijing last month.
Other elements of Zoellick's speech seemed to be aimed at domestic hard-liners who want a tougher line from Washington aimed at containing China.
In fact, he suggested that in a modern, globally integrated world, the old strategies of containment and power-balancing were no longer effective. "The global economy of the 21st century is a tightly woven fabric," he said.
"We are too interconnected to try to hold China at arm's length, hoping to promote other powers in Asia at its expense. Nor would the other powers hold China at bay, initiating and terminating ties based on an old model of drawing-room diplomacy."
Zoellick said Iran would provide a test case on Beijing's attitude toward the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The United States and the European Union are urging the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear regulator, to bring Iran's nuclear program before the Security Council over suspicions that Tehran is making nuclear bombs.
China has joined Russia, Brazil and a group of developing countries on the agency's board in opposing this move.
Zoellick also had advice for Beijing on how to manage growing economic and military clout. He said China's rise had created a "cauldron of anxiety" in the United States and that Beijing needed to understand how the absence of transparency and its involvement with troublesome states like Sudan were perceived in the world.
"Uncertainties about how China will use its power will lead the United States, and others as well, to hedge relations with China," he said.
IHT Copyright © 2005 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com
New China-U.S. dialogue could strengthen complex ties
By David Lague International Herald Tribune
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2005
BEIJING A blunt but nonconfrontational exchange this week between the United States and China suggested that a strategic dialogue that began between the two countries last month may succeed in easing tensions in a relationship that is frequently troubled.
The strategic dialogue is intended to resolve longstanding differences between Beijing and Washington over human rights, Taiwan, trade and weapons control. The exchange between senior officials this week also included a reference to the two countries' opposing positions on the issue of Iran's nuclear program.
Some political analysts said the overall dialogue and exchange of remarks this week indicated that the United States and China appeared to understand that their relationship was complex and difficult but could be managed.
"I think both sides are settled on that as some kind of agreement," said Lu Yiyi, a senior research fellow on China at Chatham House, a London-based international affairs institute. "There are going to be problems and they are not going to be great friends, but there is probably not going to be conflict, either."
In a forthright speech Wednesday, Robert Zoellick, the U.S. deputy secretary of state, laid out the Bush administration's most detailed assessment to date of Chinese-American ties, describing a complex relationship that involves elements of increasingly close economic and diplomatic cooperation alongside the potential for serious conflict.
Zoellick's call for China to embrace an open, democratic government and play a more responsible role in the international community comes at a time when ties between Washington and Beijing have been relatively constructive.
This week in Beijing, China guided the latest round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program to an agreement on principles that might be a step toward a settlement.
That followed a meeting on Sept. 13 between President George W. Bush and President Hu Jintao of China in New York that both sides said had been useful in strengthening ties.
However, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, rejected Zoellick's appeal for political change and was also straightforward in insisting that Washington should mind its own business when it comes to Chinese domestic politics. "Internal affairs should be handled by the government and people of each country," he said. "We should respect another country's right to choose its own development road."
Defending the Chinese political system, Qin said that advances in economic development had delivered rising living standards for the Chinese people. He also defended China's foreign policy and pledged that it would continue to meet its international obligations.
Although the divisive issues between Washington and Beijing are not new, Zoellick's speech in New York to the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations could be seen as a broad agenda for the strategic dialogue that he has been assigned to lead for the Bush administration. The first round in the dialogue was held in Beijing last month.
Other elements of Zoellick's speech seemed to be aimed at domestic hard-liners who want a tougher line from Washington aimed at containing China.
In fact, he suggested that in a modern, globally integrated world, the old strategies of containment and power-balancing were no longer effective. "The global economy of the 21st century is a tightly woven fabric," he said.
"We are too interconnected to try to hold China at arm's length, hoping to promote other powers in Asia at its expense. Nor would the other powers hold China at bay, initiating and terminating ties based on an old model of drawing-room diplomacy."
Zoellick said Iran would provide a test case on Beijing's attitude toward the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The United States and the European Union are urging the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear regulator, to bring Iran's nuclear program before the Security Council over suspicions that Tehran is making nuclear bombs.
China has joined Russia, Brazil and a group of developing countries on the agency's board in opposing this move.
Zoellick also had advice for Beijing on how to manage growing economic and military clout. He said China's rise had created a "cauldron of anxiety" in the United States and that Beijing needed to understand how the absence of transparency and its involvement with troublesome states like Sudan were perceived in the world.
"Uncertainties about how China will use its power will lead the United States, and others as well, to hedge relations with China," he said.
IHT Copyright © 2005 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com