Boiling Tensions in Sino-US Relations, New Categories for Disputes

By Eleanor Albert

Anyone paying slight attention to the media coverage of Sino-US relations in the past month or two can recognize the increasing tensions between the two superpowers. In the midst of new US arms sale to Taiwan, Google threatening to pull out of China, the state-stabilized Chinese currency, the international community is the audience as US-China debates take the stage. John Lee wrote this week at Foreign Policy of the growing tensions and developed three classifications for the nature of the disagreements between the United States and China: Fundamental Disagreements, Serious Disagreements, and Manageable Disagreements.

I fully agree with Lee’s manageable disagreements: military competition and economic disputes. It is true that both countries now rely on interdependence economically in a world that is increasingly changed by globalization. Simultaneously, the United States and China find themselves to also be competitors in the international community: the US as the world’s largest super power and China as the prominent rising force that could potentially challenge the US. Economic disputes and military competition will surely be the source of tension between the two countries as the US tries to hold on to its place as a supreme power and as China breaks into the new position that it seeks as a key player in the international community.

As for Lee’s serious disagreements, he names Taiwan and rogue states. China, with the ambition to hold a stronger role in the world order, will have to modify or be more cautious in its interaction with rogue states if China hopes to prove its credibility to the rest of the world. Concerning Taiwan: Both the US and China accept the status quo with their respective policies towards Taiwan. Taiwan’s economy grows progressively dependent on the Mainland. Although the US maintains its arms sale with Taiwan and the US government is still bound by law to intervene in the event of a military attack on Taiwan, the US under the Obama administration has discussed at length the crucial importance of the positive and cooperative relationship between the US and China (or at least this held true before his sale of $6.4 billion dollars in arms sale to Taiwan at the end of January).

He refers to ‘climate change’ and ‘Tibet and Xinjiang’ the two primary fundamental disagreements between the US and China. While Tibet and Xinjiang are topics of irreconcilable differences – in regard to the management of domestic issues versus international human rights, I strongly disagree with Lee’s argument on climate change. After spending a summer in Beijing in 2008 and a semester in Shanghai in the fall of 2009, there is a strong movement toward the “green” movement. The Chinese do not ignore the damage of their rapid development and industrialization and they have begun to emphasize the importance of the environment and its protection. The Chinese government’s skepticism is a product of the US trying to impose carbon emissions restrictions, however the US already had its industrial age. Perhaps to make a difference, the US should impose certain restrictions on consumption domestically and be a model for the international community…