By Shannon Tiezzi
With U.S.-China tensions seemingly at an all-time-high, what can Xi’s visit accomplish?
The year 2010 was a difficult one for U.S.-China relations. In January 2010, the Obama administration approved its first arms sale to Taiwan; Beijing cut off military-to-military relations in retaliation. Also in January 2010, U.S. technological firm Google publicly accused China of hacking its servers, sparking a high-profile recrimination from then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In mid-February 2010, Obama held his first meeting with the Dalai Lama since assuming office, causing more anger in China’s government and media alike. And in July 2010, the United States waded into the South China Sea disputes after Clinton gave a speech outlining Washington’s interests in the region at the ASEAN Regional Forum in Hanoi.
In other words, 2010 saw an outbreak of tensions in areas of intense friction between the U.S. and China: the Taiwan and Tibet issues, cyber issues (including internet freedom), and the South China Sea. Yet tensions cooled noticeably in late 2010 and early 2011, and the cause was clear: both sides were making a concerted effort to reboot their relationship in advance of then-Chinese President Hu Jintao’s January 2011 state visit (his first) to the United States.
Today, the U.S.-China relationship is in similarly dire straits. Many analysts believe, in fact, that the relationship is in its worst state in years, with structural issues (rather than discrete flashpoints) beginning to cause a rift in what has been called the world’s most important bilateral relationship. Most worryingly, there have been no signs to date that the tensions between Washington and Beijing are being brought under control in advance of President Xi Jinping’s upcoming state visit this September. That alone suggests how much the relationship has changed in just five years.
Read the full story at The Diplomat