Obama to reshape the world? Too soon to tell

• Source: The Global Times
• [23:20 April 28 2009]
• Comments

China, foe or friend?

Lieberthal: Obama has sought to build on the Bush (administration's China) policy, not to reject it. The Bush policy was one of the effective engagements with China where we developed a relationship that was cooperative, candid and constructive. Obama is simply adding new emphasis on issues that are now obviously of enormous importance.

It is in China's interests as much as in US interests to seek as best you can to find areas where we can work together more effectively. But US-China cooperation alone is insufficient to manage almost every issue other than very narrow bilateral matters. We need the cooperation of other countries. The idea of "G2," a notion that the US and China are simply together and basically dictate the outcomes of big issues, is faulty and unrealistic. Clean energy, climate change and the global financial and economic crisis - those will be the major areas in which the two sides can and should engage both bilaterally and with implications from multilateral agreements.

Shirk: The thinnest aspect of the US-China relationship is the military security relationship. Our military-to-military ties have been interrupted frequently, and I don't see so much cooperation in this aspect as in other fields. The recent US-China naval incident in the South China Sea reflects that problem. I hope we will now move more quickly in order to increase the dialogues, and also work on practices of coordinating our efforts, so if we have accidents or problems in the future, they won't lead to crisis. We need to talk ahead of time and work out how we will deal with incidents like this.

Hagt: The over-arching problem for each country and for bilateral relations has been to stimulate domestic and world economies. No one is in the mood to get distracted with non-essential issues. Even the naval dispute was non-essential in comparison with both economies facing their greatest challenges for many years. The US-China relationship is moving into a more stable although more complicated stage. The Obama government is the first administration to really recognize from the outset that China is now an equal, at least in economic terms, if not entirely in strategic terms.

Obama's Strategic Economic Dialogue is headed by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - roughly equal status for economic and political sides. That is important. This may cause problems for China, since the past administration was largely willing to look past the differences on human rights and Tibet and even to an extent on military modernization. Under Obama, these other issues, while they will remain subordinate to the larger relationship, will surface more and could lead to tension.

Wu: Clinton defined the China issue in terms of human rights; George W. Bush saw China from the perspective of security. Since Obama took power, Chinese- American relations have gone smoothly, entering a new phase. This is something unheard of, as when Bill Clinton and George W. Bush took office, Chinese- American relations experienced major setbacks. It is because Obama sees China as part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Da: When US diplomacy becomes more sophisticated, what do we do? The answer to this question depends on how we see this partner. First, is the US China's enemy? Second, is a change of international influence between China and US a zero sum game? Does the ascending influence of one necessarily spell the decrease of the other's?

China and the US are not allies, but they are not enemies either. Cooperation and disputes always coexist between them. Now cooperation is the mainstream, while disputes are minor. To address the issues of Chinese-American trade, of reshaping international power relations, of combating the economic crisis and of global climate change, the US needs a steadily developing China. China also needs a stable and prosperous US. Thus it is not a good thing for China if the US makes too many mistakes.