By Qi Hao
“Addressing the distrust and fear should be a key mission for both leaders.”
China’s President Xi Jinping is in the U.S. on his first state visit, which within China is being widely seen as a historical event comparable to that undertaken by then vice premier Deng Xiaoping in 1979. Xi’s visit is being given an unusually high profile, which seems to signify a new chapter in the bilateral relationship. It is worth exploring the possible justification for this.
It is widely acknowledged that Deng’s visit to the U.S. in 1979 showed that China was ready to be embedded into the institutional network initiated and dominated by the U.S. In other words, China was following America’s lead with the aims of both achieving domestic economic prosperity and balancing against the external threat from the former Soviet Union, which turned China into a de facto ally of the U.S. In this way, Deng’s visit to the U.S. can be interpreted as a dramatic change in Chinese foreign policy, which ultimately brought a seismic shift in the global balance of power.
More than 35 years later, the factors shaping the U.S.-China dynamic have changed beyond all recognition, and both countries face considerable uncertainty over how to reorient their relationship. Although both Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama have emphasized the significance of keeping bilateral ties on track, critical infrastructure to support that objective has eroded. Given their common security disagreements with Washington, Russia and China are being pushed together again and they seemingly share more security interests than do the U.S. and China. The role of trade and economic ties, meanwhile, long regarded as the ballast for U.S.-China relations, is becoming increasingly negative due to the widening discord over exchange rates and China’s ambition in expanding its influence within regional economic and financial systems, a move perceived by the U.S. as a challenge to its dominance.
Read the full story at The Diplomat