Obama Goes to China: A Preview of the President’s Trip
| Date | Friday, October 30, 2009 |
| Location | Russell Senate Office Building, Room 385 |
October 30, 2009 — Douglas H. Paal and Robert G. Sutter, joined us for a discussion of the issues likely to dominate the agenda during President Obama’s upcoming trip to China. Dr. Paal is currently Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former Director of the American Institute in Taiwan. Dr. Sutter is currently Visiting Professor of Asian Studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
The majority of the discussion focused on three key agenda items: the global financial crisis, climate change and non-proliferation. On the matter of the global financial crisis, the key question for the United States and China is how they should respond in a coordinated manner to ensure the most efficient and effective initiatives. The climate change question is significantly more complicated, given that China is highly reluctant to do anything that might limit its growth. This is especially problematic with the lack of any clear commitment by the U.S. pending Congressional legislation. Finally, the main proliferation challenge confronting both the United States and China is North Korea, a country with eccentric leadership that has confounded both nations for over twenty years.
They attempted to put this visit in a broader context, both regionally and historically. The discussion first examined some of Mr. Obama’s other planned stops, including Tokyo and the APEC meeting in Singapore. Turning to some of the historical nuances confronting Obama’s trip to China, Drs. Paal and Sutter examined some of the challenging issues in which U.S. and China’s interests diverge sharply, from human rights to Iran. Despite these differences, the U.S. and China have managed to build a largely constructive relationship by emphasizing the issues they agree on, while simultaneously engaging in a pattern of mutual inter-dependence, thus forcing at least some degree of cooperation. There have been setbacks however, and major trust issues have resulted from some of these setbacks. One particular factor has been U.S. public opinion of China, with a large percentage of the U.S. population viewing China with suspicion and even hostility.
Ultimately, it is clear that when President Obama goes to China, he will be handling a politically nuanced relationship with a country that seems sure to find its place as one of the leading global powers. He will need to tread lightly while still pursuing U.S. interests, and he will have to preserve a generation’s worth of work in building the U.S.-China relationship to its current level of constructive engagement.
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