Nevertheless, to US eyes, other contentious issues are now emerging in relations with China. The recently released National Security Strategy outlines three, in particular: China's global trade expansion, its military transparency and its relations with "misruling" states.
The political cost of a serious compromise on these matters would be high for China, but it does no harm to analyze and discuss them. Among the issues, military transparency seems to be the most sensitive and difficult to address.
Nevertheless, given the large size of China's armed forces, which currently stand at 2.3 million, a rough calculation would indicate that average monthly spending per soldier is at most 2,500 yuan (US$312). But if China wants to raise the military budget to improve the quality of its army, the demands of fiscal stability could make military transparency important for domestic reasons, and China might no longer view it as being off limits in its relations with the US.
Above all, we must bear in mind the maturation of Sino-US relations in recent years. A mature bilateral relationship is one in which even difficult issues can be discussed routinely. There is no question that such a framework has already been established in relations with the US. We will now see how Hu uses that framework -- and thus what imprint he leaves on the bilateral relationship -- in meeting the current challenges.
Shen Dingli is executive dean of the Institute of International Studies and deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University.
Copyright: Project Syndicate
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