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Joe Biden's visit more than a courtesy call
Source: Xinhua |
August 18, 2011, Thursday
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UNDER the shadow of US debt and noises about arms sales to Taiwan, US Vice President Joe Biden has arrived in China for a six-day visit, through next Monday.
Chinese analysts expect Biden's China tour, which began yesterday, to add to the momentum started by President Hu Jintao's state visit to the United States early this year.
During Hu's US visit in January, both countries committed to building a cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and benefits. Hu's visit to the United States got bilateral ties back on track and triggered a number of interactions between high-ranking officials from the world's two largest economies.
Now, the question is: will Biden's six-day visit to China erect a sea wall for bilateral ties so they can't be badly impacted by the looming election campaign in the United States?
History shows that China-related issues are easy targets for US politicians from both political parties and the bilateral relationship tends to fall prey to their mud-slinging. The issue of US arms sales to Taiwan is a tool often used by some lawmakers to make noises and catch attention.
The 2012 general election will likely be no exception. Some US lawmakers have started lobbying and pressuring the Obama administration to sell F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan. Media reports say that the US government will announce its decision by October 1.
"As a renowned US statesman, Biden is clear about the Taiwan issue as well as the bilateral ties between China and the United States," said Yuan Peng, a scholar with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.
Biden was elected as senator for the first time in 1972 and visited China in 1979 and 2001. Biden arrived in Beijing yesterday, coincidentally the 29th anniversary of signing of the "August 17 Communique."
In the communique inked on August 17, 1982, between China and the United States, the US side states that it "does not seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan" and "intends to reduce gradually its sales of arms to Taiwan, leading over a period of time to a final resolution."
The United States should eliminate the issue of arms sales to Taiwan that hinders the development of the China-US relations, said Liu Qing, a scholar with the China Institute of International Studies.
Another anticipated hot topic during Biden's China visit is the safety of China's assets in the US dollar. Earlier this month, Standard & Poor's removed the AAA long-term sovereign credit rating for the US and lowered it to AA+.
Among China's more than US$3 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, US$1.16 trillion were US Treasuries bonds as of May, according to the US Treasury Department. "If the greenback devalues by 10 percent to 20 percent, China will suffer another loss of as much as US$200 billion to US$300 billion dollars in the near future," according to Chen Xiankui, a professor at Renmin University of China.
Apart from the two hot topics, the China-US relationship has been haunted by many other problems in recent years.
In Yuan's opinion, the fundamental reason for the off-and-on disputes between the two countries lies in the fact that the US government has not found a way of treating China's development rationally.
"China and the US are crossing a river in the same boat," Liu said, quoting Hillary Clinton. "The biggest question for the two nations is how to boost strategic trust in each other," he said. As China makes it plain that it has no intention of challenging the United States' status in the world, Washington should in return respect Beijing's core interests as well, Liu said.
Chinese analysts expect Biden's China tour, which began yesterday, to add to the momentum started by President Hu Jintao's state visit to the United States early this year.
During Hu's US visit in January, both countries committed to building a cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and benefits. Hu's visit to the United States got bilateral ties back on track and triggered a number of interactions between high-ranking officials from the world's two largest economies.
Now, the question is: will Biden's six-day visit to China erect a sea wall for bilateral ties so they can't be badly impacted by the looming election campaign in the United States?
History shows that China-related issues are easy targets for US politicians from both political parties and the bilateral relationship tends to fall prey to their mud-slinging. The issue of US arms sales to Taiwan is a tool often used by some lawmakers to make noises and catch attention.
The 2012 general election will likely be no exception. Some US lawmakers have started lobbying and pressuring the Obama administration to sell F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan. Media reports say that the US government will announce its decision by October 1.
"As a renowned US statesman, Biden is clear about the Taiwan issue as well as the bilateral ties between China and the United States," said Yuan Peng, a scholar with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.
Biden was elected as senator for the first time in 1972 and visited China in 1979 and 2001. Biden arrived in Beijing yesterday, coincidentally the 29th anniversary of signing of the "August 17 Communique."
In the communique inked on August 17, 1982, between China and the United States, the US side states that it "does not seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan" and "intends to reduce gradually its sales of arms to Taiwan, leading over a period of time to a final resolution."
The United States should eliminate the issue of arms sales to Taiwan that hinders the development of the China-US relations, said Liu Qing, a scholar with the China Institute of International Studies.
Another anticipated hot topic during Biden's China visit is the safety of China's assets in the US dollar. Earlier this month, Standard & Poor's removed the AAA long-term sovereign credit rating for the US and lowered it to AA+.
Among China's more than US$3 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, US$1.16 trillion were US Treasuries bonds as of May, according to the US Treasury Department. "If the greenback devalues by 10 percent to 20 percent, China will suffer another loss of as much as US$200 billion to US$300 billion dollars in the near future," according to Chen Xiankui, a professor at Renmin University of China.
Apart from the two hot topics, the China-US relationship has been haunted by many other problems in recent years.
In Yuan's opinion, the fundamental reason for the off-and-on disputes between the two countries lies in the fact that the US government has not found a way of treating China's development rationally.
"China and the US are crossing a river in the same boat," Liu said, quoting Hillary Clinton. "The biggest question for the two nations is how to boost strategic trust in each other," he said. As China makes it plain that it has no intention of challenging the United States' status in the world, Washington should in return respect Beijing's core interests as well, Liu said.
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