If one were to go by the apparent bonhomie in US-China relations since the administration of US President Barack Obama came to power, it would be fair to surmise that there has been a significant shift in US policy toward China in favor of cooperation and collaboration.
However, this is only part of the story.
An important shift in the US stance toward China was made clear during US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s China visit, when she asserted that the US’ concerns about Beijing’s human rights record would not derail progress in other areas. Beijing greatly appreciated this.
China was also encouraged by Obama’s inclusion of two Chinese-Americans in his Cabinet: Secretary of Energy Steven Chu (朱棣文) and Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke (駱家輝). This, however, is a double-edged sword because Beijing believes that Chinese ethnicity should transcend all other loyalties for overseas Chinese, and that they should serve the cause of the motherland and its communist political order.
This was bluntly articulated by Wang Zhaoguo (王肇國), a Politburo member and a former head of China’s United Front Department, at the Eighth National Congress of Returned Overseas Chinese and their Relatives. He reportedly congratulated them for using “blood lineage,” “hometown feeling” and “professional linkages” to achieve “outstanding results in uniting the broad masses of overseas Chinese.” Such calls on overseas Chinese to put their ethnicity before their citizenship can be counterproductive because it raises the specter of a “fifth column.”
However, the Sino-US bilateral relationship appears to be going through a honeymoon phase. This was demonstrated when more than 250 senior Chinese officials descended on Washington in late July for their annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue. In his opening speech to the meeting, Obama highlighted the importance of the US-China relationship when he said: “The relationship between the United States and China will shape the 21st century.”
The US and China are seen in some quarters as a “bi-umvirate” in managing the world economy. Emphasizing convergence in their respective responses to the global economic crisis, US Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg said: “I think it’s demonstrated that there is no de-coupling, that we need each other.”
During her visit to Beijing, Clinton expressed her appreciation of China’s investments in US treasury bills and bonds. China is now said to be the country’s biggest foreign creditor.
What has happened so far, however, is simply a change in atmospherics, without any substantive improvement. Take the question of trade imbalance, with China stockpiling billions of US dollars. During last year’s US presidential election, Obama accused China of manipulating its currency to gain an export advantage, costing jobs in the US. In the new atmosphere, Washington no longer uses the word “manipulation” of currency. But the Obama administration maintains that the yuan is undervalued. In other words, the huge trade imbalance and the billions of dollars in currency reserves that China continues to accumulate remains a serious issue.
Then there is climate change. While China makes a lot of noise about controlling carbon emissions in the future, it is not willing to accept binding cuts. This could develop into a very serious issue if carbon emissions control legislation, which is being developed in the Senate, were to impose tariffs on products from countries such as China that do not accept binding cuts to their emissions.
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