From Council on Foreign Relations:
China ‘s rise and its effects on the United States is a growing preoccupation of U.S. policymakers and politicians. With China’s economy booming (Forbes), its military prowess expanding rapidly, and continued tension with Taiwan, U.S. politicians on both sides of the aisle have expressed alarm. Republicans and Democrats have protested China’s ownership of a huge portion of U.S. national debt. U.S.-China relations also came under strain in early 2007 when the United States filed a case with the World Trade Organization against China ‘s trade subsidies, which U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab argued are harmful to U.S. workers.
The next president will have to decide whether the United States should approach China with a more cooperative agenda. [Full Text]
See also U.S. Should We Working With, Not Against, China by Geoffrey Garrett, president of the Pacific Council on International Policy:
Last week’s U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue in Washington, D.C. put an exclamation point on new tensions in the world’s most important bilateral relationship. The Bush administration is finally feeding red meat to hungry congressional China bashers on “unfair” trade and exchange rates. And China is none to happy.
For the polite world of diplomacy, Chinese vice premier Wu Yi’s icy reaction to her U.S. counterpart Treasury secretary Hank Paulson was remarkable. She called his expression of impatience with Chinese inaction “wholly unacceptable.” [Full Text]
See Decent Policy, Needs Work by David Shambaugh, director of the China Policy Program at George Washington University:
With the Bush administration entering its last 18 months in office, it is time to take stock of its foreign policy record. While U.S. relations with Africa, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Russia under President George W. Bush all receive poor to mixed reviews, Asia policy must be considered a net success.
The administration has been fairly adroit in managing some key challenges – notably North Korea and Taiwan – and it has generally done a good job of managing relations with the three principal powers in the region – Japan, China and India. But it has been less effective in other areas. [Full Text]
Read also US Should Ignore the `China lobby’ by John Tkacik, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation:
As Taiwan appeared 16 times in its index and “China” 36 times, I purchased a copy of The Reagan Diaries. The references to China and Taiwan are still relevant and illuminating a quarter century later.
I was on the US State Department’s Taiwan Coordination Staff in January 1982 and closely followed the administration of US president Ronald Reagan’s decision to deny Taiwan the FX fighter, or Intermediate Fighter for Export. Beijing had complained about the FX, and the State Department came up with a tendentious rationale that selling the fighter to Taiwan would cause trouble with China. [Full Text]
