18 December 2008
Anniversary of U.S.-China Ties Highlights Complex Relationship
Events in 2008 show range and depth of Washington-Beijing connection
Washington — As the United States and China look forward to celebrating 30 years of formal diplomatic ties in 2009, a look back at the past year shows the depth and complexity of today’s relationship. Washington and Beijing continue to strengthen diplomacy and trade ties and to confront a host of shared security and economic challenges around the globe.
“I have been fascinated by China since my first trip there in 1975,” President Bush said in an August 2008 speech, reflecting on the years when his father, former President George H.W. Bush, headed the United States Liaison Office — a precursor to today’s American Embassy in Beijing. “At the time, the country was just emerging from the Cultural Revolution. Poverty was rampant. The streets swarmed with bicycles. People were wearing almost identical clothes. And it seemed unimaginable that three decades later Beijing would be sprinting into the modern era — covered in skyscrapers, filled with cars, home to international businesses, and hosting the Olympic Games.”
For many China watchers, Beijing’s impressive hosting of the 2008 Olympics represented the country’s reemergence on the world stage, but no less so than its leadership of the Six-Party Talks to eliminate nuclear programs from the Korean Peninsula. China also has exerted leadership in U.N. Security Council efforts to address Iran’s growing nuclear challenge and in efforts to resolve humanitarian crises in Burma, Zimbabwe and Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region and, most recently, efforts to stem piracy off the coast of Somalia. (See “Bush Pledges Continued Commitment to Asia.”)
INDISPENSIBLE INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIP
“For all of China's emerging power and all of America’s great strength, neither of us can solve the problems we both confront without the other,” said Senator Joe Biden — who will take office as vice president under President-elect Barack Obama — in a May 2008 congressional hearing.
Despite North Korea’s December 11 decision to reject a proposal by China, supported by the United States and Six-Party partners Japan, Russia and South Korea, Beijing has demonstrated steady, patient chairmanship of the talks. In 2008, the process made several advances, including Pyongyang’s June 26 report detailing its past nuclear activity and the demolition of the main cooling tower at the nuclear complex where it produced plutonium for its nuclear weapons.
Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte says that the close working relationships built under China’s leadership of the Six-Party process ultimately could set the stage for a new architecture for peace and security in Northeast Asia, one of several emerging political and security challenges that China and the United States have been discussing in a series of top-level meetings since 2005. (See “U.S.-China Relations Show Progress.”)
“Such a framework would complement our enduring alliances in Asia,” he said.
On the economic front, U.S.-Chinese ties are reflected in the two countries’ active bilateral engagement, and their partnership has been reflected at G8 meetings, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and ongoing global trade talks.
Growth sparked by China’s free-market reforms is good for the Chinese people, who are building a confident middle class with a stake in a peaceful future, Bush said, while China’s new purchasing power provides an enormous market for exports from across the globe. Economic relations have become even more central in the wake of the global financial crisis, as well as renewed efforts to tackle energy, global climate change and product safety concerns. (See “U.S., China Agree to Coordinated Action to Face Economic Woes.”)
America also stood with China following the massive magnitude 7.9 earthquake in Sichuan province in May 2008 that claimed nearly 70,000 lives and injured nearly 375,000 people, by delivering more than $4.8 million in humanitarian aid, disaster relief supplies and reconstruction assistance.
Among several environmental initiatives pursued by the two nations is a partnership between Greensburg, Kansas, which was flattened by a tornado in 2007, and Sichuan’s Mianzhu City. The two cities plan to work together to rebuild their communities using environmentally stable, green businesses and to develop new industries and construction methods that will conserve energy and preserve the environment.
HONEST AND DIRECT DIALOGUE ON DIFFERENCES
But constructive diplomatic and economic ties between Washington and Beijing have also helped facilitate “honest and direct” dialogue over differences, say officials.
On human rights, President Bush says that America presses for openness and justice not to impose its beliefs, but to allow the Chinese people to express theirs.
“America stands in firm opposition to China’s detention of political dissidents, human rights advocates, and religious activists,” Bush said. “We speak out for a free press, freedom of assembly, and labor rights not to antagonize China’s leaders, but because trusting its people with greater freedom is the only way for China to develop its full potential.”
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice welcomed China’s willingness to hold talks with representatives of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, a figure who she said could be key to resolving long-standing issues in the Himalayan region, where the group Human Rights Watch reports that as many as 1,000 Tibetan activists remain jailed following March 2008 protests.
“The Dalai Lama is a figure of considerable moral authority. He is a figure who has rejected violence,” Rice said. “He doesn’t push for political independence. So we think he’s a very positive figure in dealing with this very difficult issue of Tibet. And we’ve made that case to the Chinese, and we’re going to continue to make the case.” (See “Secretary Rice Highlights Global Partnership with China.”)
Only China can decide what course it will follow in the next 30 years, but Bush expressed optimism that, as so often in the past, political freedoms will follow economic prosperity. “Change in China will arrive on its own terms and in keeping with its own history and traditions. Yet change will arrive,” he said.
“Managing our relationship with China and the entire Pacific Rim, I think, is something that will keep not just me busy but my successor busy,” said Obama in a recent interview.
