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Adjusting to healthier and stronger ties

By Chen Weihua
Updated: 2010-02-09 00:00

Both the Chinese and American news media have been hyping the bumpy ride of Sino-US relations in the upcoming lunar Year of the Tiger. It has drawn so much attention that even people who usually show no interest in international affairs are expressing their concerns these days.

The trouble with current China-US ties is truly worrisome. The US arms sale to Taiwan, US President Barack Obama’s planned meeting with the Dalai Lama, the mounting pressure on Chinese renminbi revaluation and a string of US trade protectionist moves have changed the Chinese perception of Obama, who was deemed multilateral, conciliatory and willing to listen.

Most Americans, still suffering from a bad economy, feel deep unease about the fact that China has become its largest creditor. China’s fast growing economic might, political clout and increasing assertiveness on regional and world affairs are something too sudden for many Americans to handle.

There is a wide range of other issues that the two countries are locking horns on, such as trade deficits, human rights and a proper approach to thorny international issues, such as the Iranian nuclear energy program.

But the numerous problems in bilateral ties don’t mean that the two nations will face a final showdown or engage in a mutually destructive game.

If we look back at China-US relations in the last few decades, the two countries have waded through much more dangerous waters. The annual renewal of the most favored nation  trade status in the early 1990s, for example, was a much bigger fight than any of the current issues.

In that sense, there is no need to panic about a possible all-out trade war and other large mutually destructive actions. Similar words expressed by former Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen and former US Secretary of State Colin Powell years ago are still descriptive of the bilateral ties today: Neither Chinese nor American leadership believes that there is anything inevitable about the relationship any more — either inevitably bad or inevitably good.

China and the US are more interdependent than ever. Intertwined trade and economic ties aside, the two countries share common interests in major international issues such as fighting terrorism and climate change as well as stopping the proliferation of nuclear technology. The two countries have also witnessed a rapidly expanding cooperation and exchange in many fields such as culture, education and sports.

However, these factors do not blanket over fundamental differences between China and the US in their political and social systems. The deep distrust from the Cold War still lingers in the minds of many today in making judgments and in perceptions of the other.

To some extent, the two nations are like a married couple who has given birth to a child before getting to know or trust each other well.

The sheer fact that they have given birth to trade, economic, cultural, even military ties and many other common interests, means that they are mutual stakeholders and they will continue to work together to raise their offspring and make their family a success.

During that process, they will go through a hard time to adjust to each other because of the different cultural and education backgrounds and value systems they were brought up with.

Like many folks today, I was perplexed a few years ago by the China-US relationship that was regarded the best ever in the first month and which turned sour just weeks later.

Condoleezza Rice, the then US secretary of state, was straightforward when I consulted with her: The United States and China are friends and partners at one time and rivals and adversaries in another.

It means that everything good and bad about the bilateral ties is true and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

We should trust the leaders of the two nations to have enough wisdom to wade through another possible difficult time in the Year of the Tiger.

Despite the past year’s honeymoon highlighted by many high-level talks and visits, a hard adjustment is inevitable sooner or later. The relationship between China and the US are stronger than ever given the vast channels of communications. An inevitable adjustment will only make ties stronger and healthier.