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Wrong policy advice

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-05 07:50

History is replete with examples of wrong counsel derailing policymaking. Dan Blumenthal may not be a hugely important policy analyst but his advice poses such a threat to new US president Barack Obama's China policy. In his article in Tuesday's Washington Times, Blumenthal calls on President Obama to bring in "change we can believe in" regarding the US' China strategy.

He criticizes the US for engaging China "at any price", which he believes has subordinated concerns about human rights, Taiwan and military build-up. The change he advocates is for Obama to help China join the club of "democracies" by speaking directly to the Chinese people about "universal" notions of "liberty, justice and transparency".

Blumenthal seems unaware that not every departure from George W. Bush may be good for the new administration. Irrespective of what Bush has left for Obama - economic slowdown, wreckage from two wars and bitter international relations, strengthened China-US ties may be his biggest gift.

During the Bush years, the two countries have found common interests on a wide range of issues regarding economic policy, terrorism, environmental protection, and energy conservation through channels such as the Strategic Economic Dialogue.

A more predictable Sino-US relationship based on a shared interest in dialogue is a favorable legacy Obama can exploit and a solid foundation on which progress could be made.

However, Blumenthal regards such a legacy as "Cold War baggage" which Obama should rid himself of. The establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries was more or less an outcome of Cold War concerns. But it was the fading out of the Cold War mindset that finally led to the stabilizing of bilateral ties.

No serious scholar can afford to turn a blind eye to how the US has benefited from improved China ties in the past three decades. One would expect such a scholar to know what the Cold War really meant.

Instead of freeing himself and the new US president from Cold War legacies, Blumenthal is actually running into those nasty remnants of a bygone era. He is in favor of ideological fences rebuilt between the two countries.

It comes from the old mindset that the US values and systems should prevail all over the world. And the US should preach to countries with different cultures and social systems until they succumb to join its club of "democracies".

If such ideas are taken seriously, the US' China policy will be a warped one pushing bilateral relations to the doldrums. The recent history in Sino-US relations has also proved that the containment policy on China for ideological reasons works much worse than one of engagement through dialogues.

Blumenthal's advice appears particularly inopportune at a time when the two countries need to close ranks in order to walk out of the economic mire.

(China Daily 02/05/2009 page4)