My OperaOpportunity 08: Fostering U.S.-China Relations
Wednesday, April 18, 2007 12:41:06 AM
Opportunity 08
Independent Ideas for Our Next President
The Brookings Institution
Opportunity 08 is a project of the Brookings Institution in partnership with ABC News. To help broaden the discussion of America's policy challenges, policy forums and information
China’s growth in power has posed both challenges and opportunities in U.S.-China relations, and for the effect on the global economy. Economically, militarily and politically, China and the U.S. are playing on tumultuous turf. Brookings experts Jeffrey Bader and Richard Bush stress that if we treat China as an enemy, we will acquire an enemy. Brookings experts Lael Brainard and Wing Thye Woo argue that the United States must carefully navigate a sustained, high-level trade strategy with China. Michael Green of the Center for Strategic and International Studies says the key to success is balancing interests throughout Asia.
Opportunity 08 is a project of the Brookings Institution in partnership with ABC News. To help broaden the discussion of America's policy challenges, policy forums and information
China’s growth in power has posed both challenges and opportunities in U.S.-China relations, and for the effect on the global economy. Economically, militarily and politically, China and the U.S. are playing on tumultuous turf. Brookings experts Jeffrey Bader and Richard Bush stress that if we treat China as an enemy, we will acquire an enemy. Brookings experts Lael Brainard and Wing Thye Woo argue that the United States must carefully navigate a sustained, high-level trade strategy with China. Michael Green of the Center for Strategic and International Studies says the key to success is balancing interests throughout Asia.
Recommendations
Navigating China’s Rise
Five elements to a successful approach to trade with China:
- make preparing America for the rise of China and shaping the surrounding environment in our favor a top, sustained priority
- vigorously implement programs that equip Americans to compete in the global economy and provide social insurance in support of mobility and opportunity
- vigorously pursue critical trade enforcement actions that have the greatest consequences for American competitiveness-with intellectual property theft and China’s comprehensive subsidization of its exports as central targets
- push for more rapid adjustment of China’s currency as a critical component of a broader policy to induce appreciation in Asian currencies and to facilitate an orderly decline in global trade imbalances
- undertake sustained economic diplomacy at the highest levels to shape multilateral and regional economic structures and agreements favorably
Contending with the Rise of China
The next President should embrace the strategy of engagement initiated by President Nixon and sustained by all his successors to date. Presidential candidates should avoid tendentious condemnations of China and instead signal their intention to develop a personal relationship of trust with their Chinese counterpart soon after taking office. Specifically, the next President should:
- convince Chinese leaders that they can best promote their country's national interests by working in concert with the United States and other great powers to meet challenges to international peace and security, for example, by cooperating to restrain Iranian and North Korean nuclear arms development
- further China's integration into the network of international organizations and regimes and facilitate China's contribution to their future evolution
- encourage Chinese economic reforms that will foster a stronger foundation for equitable two-way trade and investment ties with China
- act to modernize the Asia-Pacific security structure to assure the United States is not excluded
- actively promote Chinese cooperation on energy issues
- lead in building a domestic consensus supporting his or her China policy
Constructing a Successful China Strategy
The next President will need to consolidate our strengthened partnerships with Japan, India and Australia and pay renewed attention to critical alliances that have entered a period of drift -- particularly the US-ROK alliance. The components of this approach must:
- be carefully tailored to avoid forcing a strategic choice on those nations that do not want to choose between China and the United State in Asia
- include continuing strategic dialogue with the European Union on China and Asia strategy, which generally will be an important part of the regional strategy for managing China’s rise
- be based on a recognition of the need for balancing and hedging, but confident in the steady spread of universal ideals in Asia that reinforce the American edge and shape the regional environment in ways that will encourage positive change in China’s own attitude on rule of law, governance, human rights and even political participation
Download position papers and fact sheets here (links to various PDF files)
