China-US relations enters into post-crisis era

13:53, May 24, 2010

By Li Hongmei


The history of Sino-US relations has made it clear that cooperation benefits both sides while confrontation results in harms, and mutual trust brings progress while suspicion causes setbacks.

----Premier Wen Jiabao


As the curtain rises on the second round of the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), held in Beijing on May 24-25, the world's attention will again focus on the complicated but increasingly interrelated ties between the two powers.

Analysts say this round of talks is of special significance because it signals a new consensus reached by the two sides after overcoming bouts of chills in their relationship.

Starting from the end of 2009 till the beginning of 2010, Sino-US relations had been seriously interrupted and bilateral cooperation greatly affected by a series of events, such as the US arms sales to Taiwan and US leaders' meeting with the Dalai Lama. Back then, many outside observers even doubted whether Washington would be able to cease those interruptive actions and pave the way for achieving positive results at the second S&ED.

The turning point loomed in April, when President Hu Jintao met his US counterpart Barack Obama in Washington while attending the Nuclear Security Summit. During that meeting, Hu put forward a five-point proposal for developing Sino-US relations, and called for "respecting each other's core interests and major concerns and ensuring healthy and stable development of Sino-US relations."

Obama responded positively to the proposal, promising to build a stronger US-China relationship, respect China's core interests, and carefully handle sensitive issues. The meeting was widely believed as a successful one that paves the way for the progress of Sino-US relations.

Some time ago, US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman also said frankly in Washington that due to certain decisions such as the arms sales to Taiwan made by the Obama administration, the US-China relationship went through many difficulties and challenges for several months. But that difficult period has gone, and the bilateral relations have entered a new phase.

Indeed, with the end of the Cold War, gone is the all-out confrontation. But for years, the Sino-US relations stepped into a stalemate. The standoff finally melt down after the 9/11 terrorist attack, when the two powers began to seek the new common ground jointly fighting against terrorism. When the global financial crisis hit the globe, the world’s largest developing and developed countries found themselves braving the storms in the same boat, as the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put it, "we are crossing a river in the same boat." To survive the sweeping economic winter, the two countries have to reach out to each other and huddle together for warmth.

The gushing outburst of the problems in the Sino-US relations within the year is somewhat a two-edged sword, delivering a harsh blow to the always subtle bilateral ties, but on the flip side, also allowing both sides to have the precious chance to reflect and mull over the future development of their foreign policies respectively.

After all, going through all the flow and ebb, China-US relations has entered into a new phase----the post-crisis era relationship, of unique significance calling for a unique mechanism. At the phase, the development of the bilateral ties ceases to count on setting up "a thirty party" or "a common enemy," but will be built on a new fulcrum of balances involving the strategic cooperation in common and inbred in the bilateral ties. This will pose a tough test for both China and the U.S.

Viewed from the Chinese perspectives, Sino-US relations has always been perched at a strategic height, high on its diplomatic agenda, while the U.S., as a country established on the theory of "interests first" and pragmatism, would try to satisfy and magnify the American interests when recalibrating the direction for developing its relations with China. That explains why the bilateral ties would go smooth when the interests of the both parties are overlapping; otherwise, the relations would go bumpy as a result of the well-rooted divergences.

On this analysis, the S&ED dialogue, a consensus reached by President Hu Jintao and Obama in London in April last year, is a unique mechanism and a golden momentum enabling the two countries to hold serious discussions once a year on strategic, comprehensive and long-term issues of mutual interests so that they will be able to deepen mutual understanding, enhance mutual trust and promote cooperation.

Taiya Smith, the former leading negotiator for the US-China Strategic Economic Dialogue at the US Treasury Department, likened the two countries to two giant ships in the sea. And when the two ships sail toward each other, they need to know the other's course. The S&ED is a unique mechanism to serve that purpose.

Twists and turns along the way, China-US relations are gradually moving towards the same direction, hopefully, with every step leading forward and every turn for the better.

The articles in this column represent the author's views only. They do not represent opinions of People's Daily or People's Daily Online.