Guardian UK: China's too big to be bullied by the US

[marmar]

China's too big to be bullied by the US
In tomorow's summit with Hu Jintao, Obama must recognise new realities – however unpalatable

Simon Tisdall
guardian.co.uk, Monday 17 January 2011 22.00 GMT


White House talks between Barack Obama and China's president, Hu Jintao, which begin tomorrow night, are not just any old summit. The former US national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski summed up the mood, describing the meeting as "the most important top-level US-China encounter since Deng Xiaoping's historic trip more than 30 years ago". As some in China and the US see it, the choice boils down to one of future war or peace.

Historically speaking, empires always fight. Successive American administrations have struggled to define the relationship between the world's leading superpower and the rising star of Asia that threatens to supplant it. Past summits often produced little of substance. Now, facing critical public, congressional and business scrutiny, Obama is under pressure to stand up for US interests and obtain tangible results. The past year brought a series of public clashes, reinforcing a growing US belief that China was swapping its designated role as strategic partner for that of strategic rival. Specific issues – Beijing's supposed unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft, US arms sales to Taiwan and South China Sea security disputes, the attempted gagging of Google, and the continued detention of the Nobel peace prizewinner Liu Xiaobo – raised the bilateral temperature, sometimes to boiling point.

Some rightwing commentators claim the US and China are already at war, if not yet in the conventional sense, and accuse Obama of naivety. Through currency manipulation, commercial attrition and expanding overseas investment, Hu is pursuing "war by other means", said Irwin Stelzer in the Weekly Standard, adding: "The communist regime sees trade policy as merely one strategic weapon in a war aimed at overtaking the US as the world's pre-eminent economic and military power." He cited the boast of China's defence minister, General Liang Guanglie, that "in the next five years our military will push forward preparations for military conflicts in every strategic direction".

While firmly rejecting war analogies, the White House knows it has a fight on its hands on many fronts – economic, political, ideological. Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, said last week that relations had reached a crucial juncture: "It is up to both nations to translate the high-level pledges of summits and state visits into action. Real action, on real issues." ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/17/china-hu-jintao-obama-summit

[Kurovski]

1. Kick. (nt)