Yes but can he?
- Source: Global Times
- [22:49 November 12 2009]
- Comments
By Xia Yubing and Liu Chang
Ni Feng
professor, Institute of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China
After Obama began his presidency, he continued his predecessor's policies on China and inherited part of the China policy from the post-Bush administration. Regarding changes, if there are any, I believe President Obama carries a higher expectation toward China in shouldering more of its international responsibilities. That's because since the beginning of his presidency, he has faced a severe global financial crisis, Iran issues, North Korea nuclear problems, which have pressured the US to rely more on China.
The Sino-US relationship has become the most important bilateral relationship in East Asia, so the trend of its development will determine how the structure of East Asia is going to be framed. Bearing that in mind, the US will necessarily focus more on the relationship to manage the transformation of East Asia. And this change in the Sino-US relationship will surely influence other Asian countries.
Sun Zhe
director general, Center for US-China Relations, Tsinghua University, China
Both strategic cooperation and tactical contradictions might ratchet up. An increasing amount of cooperation will be witnessed on issues like environmental protection, fighting against piracy and reforms of the international financial system, which have long been neglected.
On the other hand, however, the closer the bilateral economic ties, the more complicated the relationship between the two sides will be, which increases the possibilities of contradictions.
There is no need to be afraid of the conflict. What is worth worrying about is that there might be no solution to the conflicts. That's why both China and the US should make good use of the existing dialogue systems to strengthen their communications.
