Chinese President Hu Jintao was lionized in Washington and DC when he made a three-day state visit to the United States January 18 to 20.
Said the New York Times on January 21: “Unlike Mr. Hu’s previous trip five years ago, when he was not accorded full honors and a series of gaffes marred the visit, this one seems to have gone exactly according to script—which is how Beijing likes largely ceremonial events like state visits.
There was a 21-gun salute, a gala dinner, and a live news conference that went about as well as could be expected for the press-shy Mr. Hu. Business deals were signed, a small child was hugged, and a major speech was delivered.”
The visit echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s buzzwords—stability, harmony, cooperation.
“The positive, constructive, cooperative US-China relationship is good for the United States,” beamed an obviously pleased Barack Obama opening the joint conference with Hu at the White House East room, January 19. The US President noted that “we’re now exporting more than $100 billion a year in goods and services to China, which supports more than half a million American jobs. Our exports to China are growing nearly twice as fast as our exports to the rest of the world, making it a key part of my goal of doubling American exports and keeping America competitive in the 21st century.”
“Cooperation between our countries is also good for China. China’s extraordinary economic growth has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty,” Obama added. He attributed that growth to the Chinese people and also, “to decades of stability in Asia made possible by America’s forward presence in the region, by strong trade with America and by an open international economic system championed by the USA.”
Responding, Hu was less effusive and less detailed. “China-US cooperation has great significance for our two countries and the world,” the Chinese president agreed with Obama. “The two sides should firmly adhere to the right direction of our relationship; respect each other’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and development interests, promote the long-term sound and steady growth of China-US relations, and make even greater contributions to maintaining and promoting world peace and development,” he declared.
“China is firmly committed to the path of peaceful development and a win-win strategy of opening up.
China is a friend and partner of all countries and China’s development is an opportunity for the world,” Hu concluded his opening statement at the press conference.
The message of both the US and China seem to be—we need each other. We both are important to each other, to Asia, and to the rest of the world.
Clearly, however, China is going to be the dominant country in this century.
In a study, banking giant HSBC predicts that between 2010 and 2030, China will have the highest per capita income growth, 227 percent, even as the growth of its working population will slow down because of its one-China policy.
By 2030, projects another venerable bank, Standard Chartered, China will become the richest nation with 24-percent share of GDP, twice the US share.
Accordingly, China has been behaving like the sure winner in the superpower race.
“Strip the charm from Chinese diplomacy and only the offensive is left,” sneers The Economist in its January 15 to 21 issue. “Sino-American relations are at their lowest ebb since a Chinese fighter collided with an American EP-3 spyplane a decade ago,” the respected magazine said.
China has unveiled a new anti-ship missile and a stealth fighter jet whose development US Defense Secretary Robert Gates thought would take years the Chinese to do. Well, the stealth fighter jet was tested just when Gates was in China. Until then, only the US had a stealth fighter jet. Relates The Economist:
“Sino-American relations have been deteriorating for a year. On his first visit to China in 2009 President Barack Obama was treated with disdain, and the Chinese government reacted with fury when he sanctioned arms sales to Taiwan that were neither a surprise nor game-changing and saw the Dalai Lama—also routine for American presidents. China broke off military-to-military contacts and officials suddenly stopped returning American diplomats’ calls.”
In Asia, “China has more forcefully asserted sovereignty over great swathes of the South China Sea. It overreacted after a Chinese trawler rammed a Japanese coastguard vessel in contested waters controlled by Japan. It got into a spat with India over visas for Kashmiri residents. And it failed to condemn the North Korean sinking of a South Korean corvette and the shelling of a South Korean island.
Even Africa, once extremely friendly to China, is having doubts. Anger in Zambia is growing over Chinese managers who shot at mine workers.”
Warns The Economist: Don’t underestimate America . . . America is certainly losing clout in relative terms, but it will remain the world’s most fearsome military power for a very long time.”
Said the New York Times on January 21: “Unlike Mr. Hu’s previous trip five years ago, when he was not accorded full honors and a series of gaffes marred the visit, this one seems to have gone exactly according to script—which is how Beijing likes largely ceremonial events like state visits.
There was a 21-gun salute, a gala dinner, and a live news conference that went about as well as could be expected for the press-shy Mr. Hu. Business deals were signed, a small child was hugged, and a major speech was delivered.”
The visit echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s buzzwords—stability, harmony, cooperation.
“The positive, constructive, cooperative US-China relationship is good for the United States,” beamed an obviously pleased Barack Obama opening the joint conference with Hu at the White House East room, January 19. The US President noted that “we’re now exporting more than $100 billion a year in goods and services to China, which supports more than half a million American jobs. Our exports to China are growing nearly twice as fast as our exports to the rest of the world, making it a key part of my goal of doubling American exports and keeping America competitive in the 21st century.”
“Cooperation between our countries is also good for China. China’s extraordinary economic growth has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty,” Obama added. He attributed that growth to the Chinese people and also, “to decades of stability in Asia made possible by America’s forward presence in the region, by strong trade with America and by an open international economic system championed by the USA.”
Responding, Hu was less effusive and less detailed. “China-US cooperation has great significance for our two countries and the world,” the Chinese president agreed with Obama. “The two sides should firmly adhere to the right direction of our relationship; respect each other’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and development interests, promote the long-term sound and steady growth of China-US relations, and make even greater contributions to maintaining and promoting world peace and development,” he declared.
“China is firmly committed to the path of peaceful development and a win-win strategy of opening up.
China is a friend and partner of all countries and China’s development is an opportunity for the world,” Hu concluded his opening statement at the press conference.
The message of both the US and China seem to be—we need each other. We both are important to each other, to Asia, and to the rest of the world.
Clearly, however, China is going to be the dominant country in this century.
In a study, banking giant HSBC predicts that between 2010 and 2030, China will have the highest per capita income growth, 227 percent, even as the growth of its working population will slow down because of its one-China policy.
By 2030, projects another venerable bank, Standard Chartered, China will become the richest nation with 24-percent share of GDP, twice the US share.
Accordingly, China has been behaving like the sure winner in the superpower race.
“Strip the charm from Chinese diplomacy and only the offensive is left,” sneers The Economist in its January 15 to 21 issue. “Sino-American relations are at their lowest ebb since a Chinese fighter collided with an American EP-3 spyplane a decade ago,” the respected magazine said.
China has unveiled a new anti-ship missile and a stealth fighter jet whose development US Defense Secretary Robert Gates thought would take years the Chinese to do. Well, the stealth fighter jet was tested just when Gates was in China. Until then, only the US had a stealth fighter jet. Relates The Economist:
“Sino-American relations have been deteriorating for a year. On his first visit to China in 2009 President Barack Obama was treated with disdain, and the Chinese government reacted with fury when he sanctioned arms sales to Taiwan that were neither a surprise nor game-changing and saw the Dalai Lama—also routine for American presidents. China broke off military-to-military contacts and officials suddenly stopped returning American diplomats’ calls.”
In Asia, “China has more forcefully asserted sovereignty over great swathes of the South China Sea. It overreacted after a Chinese trawler rammed a Japanese coastguard vessel in contested waters controlled by Japan. It got into a spat with India over visas for Kashmiri residents. And it failed to condemn the North Korean sinking of a South Korean corvette and the shelling of a South Korean island.
Even Africa, once extremely friendly to China, is having doubts. Anger in Zambia is growing over Chinese managers who shot at mine workers.”
Warns The Economist: Don’t underestimate America . . . America is certainly losing clout in relative terms, but it will remain the world’s most fearsome military power for a very long time.”
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