The U.S.-China Entente

The visit by the President of China, Hu Jintao, to the United States has shown that friction in the relationship between the two great powers is not only inevitable but an inseparable part of the roles they play in the world order. Neither the tendency to avoid the Chinese regime’s lack of respect for human rights nor the insistence in underlining China’s strategic limitations neutralizes the ineludible fact that there is no mechanism capable of competing with a literally brutal* economic growth. That is how the President of the United States, Barack Obama, seems to have understood it when he didn’t hold back in his ideological criticism of China in Hu’s presence and accepted the challenge of drawing up a partnership, within which, in one way or another, the future of Taiwan, the conflict between both Koreas and, in general, all that pertains to Asia’s future will be affairs that require a joint administration by both powers.

Obama’s use of realism was necessary. The price of energy and raw materials, international commerce, the sovereign debt market, the investments in about 30 African countries and the moderation of the collective psychosis in the face of the challenge of global terrorism are chapters in which China is a determining player. The cool welcome which Congress gave to Hu is as understandable as it is unproductive: What is for sure is that for the first time since the end of the Cold War, the United States must share responsibilities on an equal footing; the tone cannot be the same one which was used with China when it was no more than a future promise.

*Translator’s note: The author used the word “brutal,” which presents a possible play on words with the word “extraordinary.”