Wen calls for better US communications
(China Daily/USA Today)
Updated: 2006-01-25 05:56

The report said that Zoellick's two-day trip aims to lock China into the "stakeholder" concept he outlined in a September 2005 speech titled, "Whither China: From Membership to Responsibility." The speech, widely studied in China, highlights the new direction the State Department hopes Sino-U.S. relations will take and the difficulty of getting there.

Doubts remain over how far the new rhetoric translates into action. "Both sides have made a lot of nice speeches in recent months," Shi Yinhong, a professor of International Relations at People's University in Beijing, said the USA Today report.

 "But they have not taken substantial steps to really deal with concrete disputes."

The list of potential disputes includes the large bilateral trade imbalance, the need for further revaluation of China's yuan currency and China's stance over the possible nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.

"China's leadership was happy to hear the concept of "stakeholder" as it shows America recognizes China's increasing role in the world," says Shi.

Zoellick hopes his initiative offers a framework on which to promote Sino-U.S. relations, widely tipped as this century's key bilateral relationship, according to the report.

"The words 'stakeholder' upgraded China's status in foreign relations and the global system," says Chu Shulong, director of the Strategy Research Institute at Tsinghua University, also in Beijing.

"The only uncertainty in Chinese circles is whether it represents the ideas of the administration. Does the key term 'stakeholder' also represent the ideas of Secretary (of State Condoleezza) Rice, or the thinking of the President himself?" Chu was cited as saying.

Chu predicts a smooth ride in China-US relations in the short-term. "America's strategic intention and concern is not China, but in Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terrorism," Chu says. "America needs China's cooperation in these areas, so I see smooth, positive development of relations in the year ahead."