Public opinion deserves US' attention

• Source: The Global Times
• [01:09 June 02 2009]
• Comments

There are many things on US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s agenda during his first visit to China. They are all critical issues to both the US and China. But it seems that Geithner wants to address them only with the Chinese government and elites.

No matter what substantive results he can achieve in his three day visit, it will be regrettable if he underestimates and shuts his ears to voices from China’s civil society, an increasingly important force in shaping future Sino- American relations.

It is common knowledge that China has a strong government, which still exerts an extremely powerful influence over the whole society.

However, China’s civil society has been growing in the last 30 years and now, when dealing with foreign policy issues, the government cannot ignore society’s thoughts about international relations.

Common people’s voices are starting to gain some leverage in changing China’s relations with other countries.

Washington should try to learn what ordinary Chinese citizens think about the US, Sino-US economic and political relations, and the contemporary world order.

In particular, ordinary Chinese people are discontent with the declining value of China’s huge foreign exchange reserve denominated in US dollars.

The reserve holdings have been the fruit of China’s 30-year sustained economic growth and have been earned by hard work. Now how to maintain and enhance the value of these holdings is a common concern of China’s ordinary people. And domestic public opinion on this is one of the most significant factors in determining government policy.

In a survey on the Global Times’ website, www.huanqiu.com, respondents listed the top five requests they had for Geithner. They were to “keep the dollar stable and stop pointing fingers at the yuan exchange rate”; “lift the US’ restrictions on its high tech exports to China”; “promise that China’s assets in the US are safe”; “acknowledge China’s market economy”; and “stop the protectionist measures against China.” All these demands deserve the serious attention of top US officials.

By looking at the Internet and populist media outlets, Americans will have a sense of the tendency: ordinary Chinese citizens are more and more active in participating in public affairs and there is no holding back.

Washington needs to realize the importance of Chinese public opinion, which is gaining momentum in influencing China’s foreign policy, just as American foreign policy is deeply impacted by domestic public opinion.