A coming visit to Washington by President Hu Jintao, and an hour-long telephone conversation between him and President Obama, may mark an easing of recent tensions. From Time Magazine:
Hu’s attendance at the nuclear summit had been in doubt following Obama’s January decision to approve the sale of $6.4 billion in arms to Taiwan, which China considers part of its territory. A month later, Obama met with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader accused by Chinese leaders accuse of seeking Tibetan independence. In the span of a few weeks the U.S. had prodded China on two of its most sensitive issues, prompting an angry backlash, including a suspension of some high-level military exchanges. Beijing also refused to even discuss U.S. proposals for new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.
Bilateral ties had already been strained by China’s reluctance to seek a deal on climate change during the Copenhagen conference in December. Then came last month’s decision by U.S. Internet giant Google to shutter the censored search engine it ran in China and instead funnel mainland searches to an unfiltered site in Hong Kong. And all of this underscored by growing tension over currency issues between the two key players in the world economy.
China’s latest moves, however, hint that it hopes to tamp down tensions. “Things certainly stopped getting worse,” says Professor Jin Canrong, deputy director of School of International Studies at Renmin University in Beijing. “I would say the relationship between China and the U.S. is becoming stable, but in order to get better, both of them have to work harder.”
