The Illusory “Chinamerica”

After the G8, has the era of the “Chinamerican” G2 arrived? Barack Obama revived his “Yes we can” slogan while kicking off the first Chinese-American summit of his presidency yesterday in Washington.


Yes, the United States and China can be partners.  And, in this regard, the American president is correct.  Due to the economic crisis, the two big powers are obligated to cooperate more closely with each other, not only to restore some hope in economic growth, thus avoiding a worldwide depression, but also to cope with serious environmental problems. 

Washington also needs Beijing in order to fight against new threats, such as nuclear proliferation in North Korea and in Iran.  But moving from the current situation to establishing a mini-council, capable of regulating the planet’s problems, like some in Washington believed to be possible, requires a giant step not possible today. 

This G2 of the twenty-first century would leave aside other emerging powers, such as India or Brazil, and, more importantly, Europe.  This would risk creating new imbalances in the world.  30 years of normalization of Chinese-American relations has not erased the profound differences between the two countries.  The People’s Republic, even if it has adopted a market economy, remains an authoritarian, communist country.  The country’s decisions are dictated by a determined nomenklatura, whose power is to be maintained rather than to serve the well-being of its people. 

China does not share America’s interests, as far as economic development is concerned, in countries such as Sudan or Burma.  It remains more preoccupied by its supply of energy than by human rights.  Fundamentally, China is not Japan nor Germany, no more than it is France, Great Britain, Italy, Canada or other countries who share common values with America.  The economic crisis has only put aside the most serious disagreements.  Unlike his predecessor, George W. Bush, Barack Obama has muted American demands for a reevaluation of Chinese currency.  But how long can the American president resist the pressure of American industrialists? 

While waiting for the illusory “Chinamerica,” the narrowing Chinese-American dialogue has something to reassure itself with, because the Chinese and the Americans are linked by a truly Faustian pact: some 800 billion dollars of American treasury bonds are held by China.  And the two countries need each other now, more than ever before.