China-U.S. Cooperation Is Beneficial to Area Security

Published in Zaobao
(China) on 13 May 2011
by (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Liangzi He. Edited by Alex Brewer  .
Chinese President Hu Jintao and U.S. President Barack Obama have just finished their third dialogue in Washington, based on the China-U.S. strategic dialogue mechanism jointly advocated and established by them in April 2009. The two-day meeting resulted in a joint signature of a “U.S.-China comprehensive framework of economic cooperation.” China spoke highly of this agreement, saying that it was a “milestone” in the progress of China-U.S. economic cooperation, and also the most crucial achievement in this round of China-U.S. economic dialogue.

Outside the economic area, the two sides also carried out the first strategic security dialogue, which aimed to enhance mutual trust, control differences and avoid misreading and misjudgment each other’s strategic purpose; China also thought that this was one of the highlights in this round China-U.S. strategic dialogue.

China has reasons for being satisfied with the outcome of this round of dialogue, because it has been talking with the United States regarding issues like trade and business, RMB, human rights and regional security for several months. Fortunately, the China-U.S. relationship has not been reversed; this round of dialogue will further show the two sides’ determination on strengthening cooperation in various aspects.

The United States and China are the world’s first and second largest economies now; when China will exceed the United States to become the world’s largest economy has been a heated issue in U.S. political, business and academic fields. For China, maintaining a positive relationship with the United States is very important for consolidating its power status. China has been worrying that the United States, other western countries and the United States’ Asian allies would restrain its rising ambition. Although the United States constantly entangles with RMB and human rights issues, it has core interests with China, in particular a need for mutual cooperation in regional security.

China’s vice minister of finance, Zhu Guangyao, said that neither China nor the United States has ever signed such a comprehensive cooperation framework, especially one that covers economic issues — among a wide array of others issues —with another country before. China-U.S. strategic dialogue has achieved 48 results; the list involved cooperation in many areas including energy, science and technology, transportation and climate change. China is the second largest trade partner for the United States after Canada. China and the United States are intertwined with each other in various aspects, so they have to attach great importance to one another.   

In the last two months, many issues between China and the United States have been surfacing. In March, the U.S. State Department published a report on human rights around the world, in which it pointed out that China had deteriorated human rights and strengthened restriction on Internet freedom. Then China published a report of the U.S. human rights record to counter. Even though this kind of conflict has recently been a routine for the two countries, a series of arrests in China has heated up human rights issues again, and the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton even used a strong tone in describing China’s human rights situation as “deplorable,” a statement which obviously showed that the human rights dialogue in Beijing held not long ago hadn’t narrowed the two sides’ distance on this issue.

On the military side, this year the Chinese navy has been undertaking constant activities in Pacific waters. The U.S. Pacific Admiral Willard said last month that since the United States and other countries in the Pacific area began to protest, China has backed down to some extent and the situation in that area was no longer as tense as it was last year.

The news that China’s first aircraft carrier may have sea trials this summer has drawn wide attention, and the U.S. thought that the deployment of this carrier would significantly change people’s attitude toward the Pacific regional balance of power.

On the economic side, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, who will soon be the ambassador to China, criticized China recently for treating the U.S. investment companies in China unfairly, and caused serious damage to related companies. In addition, recently, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce finally ruled that cars and SUVs with a displacement of 2.5 liters or more produced originally in the United States are being subsidized and dumped, which has caused substantial damage to China’s domestic industries.

These kinds of games between China and the U.S. will continue, but as long as the two sides take the interest of the whole into account, and do not deepen differences, they will maintain a secure and stable environment for the world. This will also be another guarantee with long-term significance for the U.S.-China dialogue mechanism and cooperation framework.


社论 2011年5月13日
  中国国家主席胡锦涛与美国总统奥巴马在2009年4月共同倡导建立的中美战略与经济对话机制,刚在华盛顿结束了第三轮的对话,两天会议的成果是双方共同签署了“中美全面经济合作框架协议”。中方高度评价这一协议是中美经济合作进程中一个“里程碑”,“是本轮中美经济对话最核心的成果”。

  在经济领域之外,双方也进行了首次战略安全对话,对话的目的包括“增进互信、管控分歧,避免对对方的战略意图产生误读误判”,中方也认为这是“本轮中美战略对话的一大亮点”。

  中国对此轮对话的成果是有理由感到满意,因为过去数个月来中美在几个课题上:商贸和人民币、人权以及区域安全等等多次博弈。所幸中美关系并未出现逆转,这轮对话更对世界肯定了中美双方要在多方面加强合作的决心。

  美、中是世界上第一和第二大的经济体,中国几时超越美国成为世界最大经济体的议题一直受美国政界、商界和学界所关注。对中国来说,中美关系保持良好势头对进一步巩固其强国地位是很重要的,中国一路来都担心美国及其西方和亚洲盟国有遏制中国崛起的企图心。尽管美国不断在人民币课题、人权问题上纠缠不清,但中美之间存在更大的核心利益,即在区域安全课题上,双方都需要对方的合作。

  中国财政部副部长朱光耀说:“中美双方迄今为止都未同第三国签订过如此全面、涵盖经济各个领域的全面合作框架”。中美战略对话取得48项成果,清单涉及能源,科技、环境、交通、气候变化等多个领域的合作。中国是加拿大之后美国第二大贸易伙伴国,中美两大国在许多方面的利益互相交织,彼此都不能不重视对方的重要性。

  过去两个月来,中美之间的许多问题不断浮出台面,3月份美国国务院发表世界各国人权报告,指中国“人权恶化、网络信息自由限制受到强化”。中国也跟着发表美国人权纪录报告加以反击,这虽然已成为两国之间的“例行公事”,但最近中国的一连串逮捕事件,使得中国人权课题又被炒得火热,美国国务卿希拉莉甚至形容中国人权状况“很糟糕”(deplorable),语气强烈,显见两国不久前在北京举行的人权对话并未拉近双方在这课题上的距离。

  在军事方面,中国海军今年以来在太平洋水域的活动频繁,美军太平洋司令威拉德上将在上个月说,自从美国和太平洋地区其他国家提出抗议后,中国“已有所收敛”,区域形势不再像去年那样剑拔弩张。

  中国第一艘航空母舰今年夏季有可能出海试航的消息也引起广泛的关注,美国认为该舰的部署将显著改变人们对太平洋地区力量平衡的看法。

  在经济领域方面,即将出任驻华大使的美国商务部长骆家辉(Gary Locke)最近批评中国没有公平对待美国在华投资公司,对相关企业造成严重困扰。而中国商务部近日终裁,原产于美国的排气量在2.5升以上的小轿车和越野车存在倾销和补贴,使中国国内相关产业受到实质损害。

中美之间诸如此类的博弈今后还是会继续下去,但只要双方顾全大局,不让矛盾加深,就能为世界维持一个安全、稳定的环境,中美之间的对话机制与合作框架是另一层有长远意义的保障。
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