After attending the ASEAN Regional Forum in Shanghia, US Secretary of State Colin Powell visited Beijing for just one day -- although the trip was aimed at reciprocating Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen's (
Upon his arrival in Beijing on the morning of July 28, Powell held talks with Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan (唐家璇). He then met separately with Qian, Premier Zhu Rongji (朱鎔基) and President Jiang Zemin (江澤民) in the afternoon -- all within three hours. Despite the briefness of his stay, Powell is the highest-ranking official from the Bush administration to visit China so far. His trip was a vital symbol of improvement in US-Sino ties since the mid-air collision between a Chinese fighter jet and a US reconnaissance plane in April.
Powell and Tang basically agreed to arrange a bilateral meeting aimed at strengthening the consultation mechanism on military maritime safety, to resume human rights dialogue between the two governments and to schedule expert consultations on the issue of non-proliferation. They also agreed to hold the US-Sino Joint Economic Committee meeting and the US-Sino Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade meeting before the end of 2001.
The consultation mechanism on military maritime safety is set to discuss a code of conduct in the case of encounters between the two nations' navy and air forces. Since January 1999, Bei-jing has stalled its human rights dialogue with the US and has linked the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to US weapons sales to Taiwan.
Beijing's agreement to reopen the dialogue attests to its eagerness to stop the damage to bilateral relations caused by the plane collision. After the 1999 bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Beijing banned US warships from making port calls in Hong Kong. The same tactic was repeated in the wake of the collision, but Beijing lifted the ban again as Powell visited China.
The Bush administration has adopted the strategy of separating politics from economics. It keeps a close eye on China in political and military areas, while expanding its cooperation with China on trade and economics. In May, the Bush administration announced the extension of normal trade relations with China for another year and reached an overall consensus with China in June on the remaining problems concerning China's entry into the WTO.
After People's Liberation Army Colonel Xu Junping (徐俊平) defected to the US, Beijing detained two Chinese sociologists in February -- Gao Zhan (高瞻), a US resident, and Li Shaomin (李少民), a US citizen. The detention of the two aroused concerns among the US public, the Congress and Bush. Editorials in The New York Times and The Washington Post criticized China's human rights standards. Congress demanded that Beijing "immediately and unconditionally release Li Shaomin and all other American scholars of Chinese ancestry being held in detention." The first hotline conversation between Bush and Jiang also focused on this issue. Beijing ended up deporting Li and Gao prior to Powell's visit -- an act described by the media as hostage diplomacy.
In dealing with the US, Beijing uses a special strategy of niggling without jeopardizing the relationship. In retaliation for Dutch and French arms sales to Taiwan, China downgraded its diplomatic relations with Holland and forced France to close its consulate general in China. In the cases of the US sales of F-16 fighters and submarines to Taiwan, however, China has had to engage in an overall consideration of the situation before adopting retaliatory measures.
At his press conference in Beijing, Powell said the recent US arms sales to Taiwan were in response to China's missile buildup. He said the sales conform to the US' "one China policy," which insists on peaceful resolution of the cross-straits issue and help to boost Taiwan's confidence about negotiating with China. This is in line with the statements of both Bush and President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
The crux of the problem is that Beijing sets "one China" as a precondition. China pressured former president Bill Clinton to put forth the so-called "three no's" policy toward Taiwan, resulting in former president Lee Teng-hui's (
Beijing should directly negotiate with Taipei if it wants its Taiwan policy to be effective. Qian, Zhu and Jiang have instead repeatedly raised the Taiwan issue with Powell, thereby strengthening US influence in the Taiwan Strait.
The Bush administration has avoided defining China and the US as either partners or enemies. It has said the US will establish a constructive relationship with China. Beijing has said that both sides have to jointly build a constructive, cooperative relationship. During an interview with Chinese Central TV, Powell still called the two parties "strategic competitors." China and the US cannot possibly be strategic partners, nor will they become eternal enemies.
China wants to change the US' hegemonic position in the Asia-Pacific region through multipolar means. It expanded the "Shang-hai Five" grouping into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, with Uzbekistan as the sixth member. It also signed a friendship and cooperation treaty with Russia which is actually a strategic partnership. It is questionable whether or not Bush would even visit China during his term, if it were not for the APEC forum being held in Shanghai.
China and the US have different ideologies and national interests but neither of them hesitates to exercise military power when necessary. The separation of politics and economics has become an inevitable trend. Other Asia-Pacific nations have limited capacities for influencing Sino-US relations, but often find themselves being used by the two powers as bargaining chips.
Lin Cheng-yi is director of the Institute of European and American Studies at the Academia Sinica.
Translated by Jackie Lin
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