Will China and the U.S. be Strategic Partners?
The tenth anniversary of the Agreement on Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation between Russia and the People's Republic of China is being commemorated in Beijing. It was signed on July 16, 2001. Representatives of the Russian and Chinese research communities, former ambassadors from China to Russia, Russian diplomatic personnel and other people who are somehow connected to Russian-Chinese relations have gathered for the event. The Chinese Institute of Foreign Affairs organized the conference.
Chen Gopin, a high-ranking official of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced, "The consistency of Moscow's and Beijing's positions on vital issues of regional and international business plays a key role in regulating a number of global problems – the nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea and the situations in Afghanistan and North Africa."
In recent times, a wide discussion has been spreading in the local political research community about China's place in the modern world as well as its relationship with other countries. Its ties with the U.S. stand separately, as usual. A number of experts on both sides of the ocean say directly that these two governments will become the defining global forces in the foreseeable future.
Some are talking in earnest about the possibility of the formation of a G2 – some kind of union of the two giants. Therefore, close attention is being paid in China to research on the relations between Beijing and Washington. In light of this, independent scholars are placing Chinese-American dialogue first in China's foreign policy priorities.
However, according to what sources close to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Izvestia, this perspective does not completely conform to reality. In their opinion, it is the ties between Russia and China that are the most important.
There is a lot of ambiguity in China's relations with the United States. The White House's willfulness and unpredictability alarms Beijing to a certain degree and makes it impossible to fully count on a fruitful and mutually beneficial partnership. It is sufficient to remember the variances on the Taiwan issue, the activity of the U.S. Navy right at China's borders and the constant, at times unnecessarily harsh, criticism of the Chinese on the human rights issues, which comes from Washington.
"The relationship between Russia and China is fundamentally different from the Soviet-Chinese union," Sergei Luzyanin, the deputy director of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Izvestia. "The present partnership is founded not on ideology but on mutual interests." He believes that China does not have as good a relationship with any of its neighboring countries as it does with Russia, stating, "The conflicts and mutual territorial claims do not stop with Japan, India and the countries of Indochina, but the Russian border in the north is a calm area."
Beijing is not interested in destabilizing its relations with Moscow. In the coming decade,s Chinese interests are directed toward the south and southeast, in the Pacific Ocean and in Africa, not at all in the north.
This "southern direction" of Chinese policy casts doubt on the reality of the idea of a G2. The expert supposes that such a union with the U.S. would be impossible – with increasing volume, Beijing is asserting claims for dominance in the Pacific Ocean, which up until now has been considered to be a zone of exclusively American influence.
Chen Gopin, a high-ranking official of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced, "The consistency of Moscow's and Beijing's positions on vital issues of regional and international business plays a key role in regulating a number of global problems – the nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea and the situations in Afghanistan and North Africa."
In recent times, a wide discussion has been spreading in the local political research community about China's place in the modern world as well as its relationship with other countries. Its ties with the U.S. stand separately, as usual. A number of experts on both sides of the ocean say directly that these two governments will become the defining global forces in the foreseeable future.
Some are talking in earnest about the possibility of the formation of a G2 – some kind of union of the two giants. Therefore, close attention is being paid in China to research on the relations between Beijing and Washington. In light of this, independent scholars are placing Chinese-American dialogue first in China's foreign policy priorities.
However, according to what sources close to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Izvestia, this perspective does not completely conform to reality. In their opinion, it is the ties between Russia and China that are the most important.
There is a lot of ambiguity in China's relations with the United States. The White House's willfulness and unpredictability alarms Beijing to a certain degree and makes it impossible to fully count on a fruitful and mutually beneficial partnership. It is sufficient to remember the variances on the Taiwan issue, the activity of the U.S. Navy right at China's borders and the constant, at times unnecessarily harsh, criticism of the Chinese on the human rights issues, which comes from Washington.
"The relationship between Russia and China is fundamentally different from the Soviet-Chinese union," Sergei Luzyanin, the deputy director of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Izvestia. "The present partnership is founded not on ideology but on mutual interests." He believes that China does not have as good a relationship with any of its neighboring countries as it does with Russia, stating, "The conflicts and mutual territorial claims do not stop with Japan, India and the countries of Indochina, but the Russian border in the north is a calm area."
Beijing is not interested in destabilizing its relations with Moscow. In the coming decade,s Chinese interests are directed toward the south and southeast, in the Pacific Ocean and in Africa, not at all in the north.
This "southern direction" of Chinese policy casts doubt on the reality of the idea of a G2. The expert supposes that such a union with the U.S. would be impossible – with increasing volume, Beijing is asserting claims for dominance in the Pacific Ocean, which up until now has been considered to be a zone of exclusively American influence.