From Project Syndicate (link):
As Hu Jintao, China’s Communist Party Secretary General and President, prepares to visit the US on April 20, myriad unresolved issues are disturbing Sino-US relations. Debates rage over the bilateral trade balance and revaluation of the renminbi, the status of Taiwan and Tibet, human rights violations, and intellectual property theft. China’s role in restraining North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and its tense relations with Japan are an additional burden on ties. There is even disagreement about whether Hu’s trip to Washington is an official “state visit.”
These issues will dominate the headlines, but they pale in comparison to another problem that is on neither side’s agenda: global warming. That is a pity, because as British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently observed, over the long term, “there is no issue more important than climate change,” and there can be no agreement to reduce it “that doesn’t involve China, America and India.”