Xinhua
China, U.S. should rise above their differences
Backgrounder: China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue
BEIJING, May 9 (Xinhua) -- When Chinese President Hu Jintao visited the United States in January, he called on the governments of the two countries to "ascend a height to enjoy a distant view" in dealing with Sino-U.S. relations.
With this Chinese proverb, he meant to say that both sides should be farsighted and seek common grounds while reserving differences in order to maintain a long-term, healthy and stable development of the bilateral relations.
This should be exactly the objective of the third round of the Chinese-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue, a forum jointly proposed by President Hu and his American counterpart Barack Obama, which will start Monday in Washington and be attended by high-ranking officials from both sides.
MANAGING DISPUTES
There is no denying that disagreements and disputes between the two sides still exist. Issues such as exchange rate, trade deficit and human rights sounded divisive ahead of the dialogue.
Washington wanted the Chinese Yuan to appreciate faster in hopes of increasing U.S. exports to China, thus reducing its overall trade deficit.
China has long said it would like to increase the flexibility of the Chinese currency -- and so Beijing has been doing. Since 2005, the Chinese Yuan has risen more than 26 percent against the U.S. dollar, with 2 percent alone in the past four months.
At the same time, the U.S. exports to China have been rising fast in the last couple of years.
According to the Washington-based U.S.-China Business Council, the U.S. exports to China soared 32 percent last year to a record 91.9 billion dollars. The council also noted China is now the fastest-growing destination for the American exports.
In fact, China's trade surplus with the United States has mainly resulted from the economic globalization. Many of the U.S. imports from China are products of American and other overseas enterprises, which have invested in China and yielded profits that account for the lion's share of the trade surplus.
On the other hand, a plunging dollar, fueled by a loose U.S. monetary policy and high federal budgets, has become the source of many current global economic problems.
A weak dollar has pushed up commodity prices, leading to higher energy and food costs in many countries. Emerging economies like China and India are particularly concerned about their rising inflationary pressures.
Besides currency and trade disputes, Washington has also raised questions about its perceived "deterioration" in China's human rights record.
Being at different stages of social development, China and the United States have different priorities in promoting human rights.
China has made tremendous progress even in the fields of human rights cherished most by Westerners and it has kept dialogues with the U.S. on human rights issues.
But if Washington tries to meddle in China's internal affairs by playing with the issue, it will only lead to animosity between the two sides.
The list of complaints could extend further as Washington was expected to ask Beijing to do more in protecting intellectual property rights, opening up China's financial sector, granting U.S. companies equal access to the government procurement market and so on.
Indeed, dialogue is meant for negotiations where both sides should try hard to bridge their differences. But to make the dialogue more constructive and helpful to building mutual trust, China and the United States should look beyond those disputes.
SEEKING COMMON GROUNDS
In the past few decades, China and the United States -- the world's largest developing and developed countries -- have managed to build a mutually important relationship, despite bickering on issues like exchange rate and human rights.
To each other, China and the United States are now important economic partners with ever-expanding trade and investment ties.
A prosperous America is important to China's development, and a rich and peaceful China serves the U.S. interests as well.
The global financial crisis has made clear the vulnerabilities of both economies and the two countries face the same daunting challenge of economic restructuring.
The good news is that while China and the United States try to solve their domestic problems, they can complement each other in the process.
For example, in the next few years, China is bent on boosting its domestic demand while reducing its dependence on exports as a major source of economic growth.
In this process, some 1.3 billion Chinese consumers, with rising income and better coverage of the social security network, are expected to buy more and more U.S. goods and services, thus offering potentially an enormous market for the exports.
China and the United States may still differ over exchange rate, trade and macro-economic policies, but their disputes should not overshadow the fact that both have enjoyed the benefits of their pragmatic cooperation on wide-ranging economic issues.
And from a global perspective, China and America are also on the same boat, having a stake in ensuring a stable global economic, financial and trade system.
More than two years after the global financial crisis, both China and the United States have tried to learn from it, to toughen financial regulation and to balance the world economy, which will thus lay the foundation for a strong, sustainable and balanced growth.
Besides, both countries share common interests on a wide range of other international issues, from fighting terrorism, taming climate change to reducing tension of regional "hotspots."
Clearly, due to their differences in cultures, ideologies and social systems, there are still serious suspicions to be dispersed before a solid strategic trust can be built between China and the United States.
However, dialogue on the basis of equality and mutual respect is the best approach to promoting understanding and building mutual trust between countries.
In the statement issued after the Washington summit, presidents Hu and Obama reaffirmed their commitment to establishing a "positive, cooperative and comprehensive China-U.S. relationship for the 21st century, which serves the interests of Chinese and American peoples and of the global community."
As officials sit together for the latest round of China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue, they clearly have an opportunity, or rather a mission, to rise above differences and continue the momentum of building "a cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit" initiated by their leaders in January.
Editor: Wang Guanqun
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2011-05/09/c_13865826.htm
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