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| Prepared by: | Carin Zissis |
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A ship unloads containers at the new Yangshan deep water port off the coast of Shanghai. (AP/Greg Baker)
Washington’s decision to eschew soft diplomacy with China for a more assertive stance on economic relations appeared to threaten U.S.-Chinese relations. On April 9, the United States sued China (NPR) in the World Trade Organization (WTO) court over Beijing’s failure to address intellectual property rights and open its market to American DVDs, books, and movies. China’s Ministry of Commerce responded, saying the U.S. complaints would “seriously damage” (FT) bilateral ties.
Only a week earlier, the U.S. Commerce Department applied duties on coated paper from China, reversing a twenty-three-year-old policy of not placing duties on countries that don’t have market economies. China surpassed the United States as the world's second largest exporter in the latter half of 2006, according to a new WTO report. Stephen Roach, Morgan Stanley’s chief New York economist, says U.S. trade sanctions against China appear inevitable by the end of 2007. “Support is deep and bipartisan,” says Roach. “After years of talk and bluster, protectionism no longer seems like an empty threat.”
Amid these heightening tensions, a new CFR Task Force report on Sino-American relations advocates continuing the trajectory of engagement set by Nixon’s visit to China in 1972 and calls for an “affirmative agenda.” Building on Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick’s 2005 concept of China as a “responsible stakeholder,” the report recommends incorporating Beijing into the global system: “Integration is a responsible course involving a blend of engaging China on issues of mutual concern, weaving China into the fabric of international regimes on security, trade, and human rights, and balancing China’s growing military power.”
As a new CFR.org interactive timeline explores, relations between Beijing and Washington have gone through periods of deep tension since the rise of Chinese communism in 1949, even after Nixon’s visit. Carla A. Hills, co-chair of the U.S.-China Task Force, warns against the latest round of U.S. anxieties over engagement with the rising Asian power in a new interview. “We have political resistance here at home that emanates from worries about China’s rapid growth in the last two decades,” says Hills. She proposes establishing “habits of cooperation” to avoid the trap of mutual distrust, particularly regarding China’s efforts to rapidly modernize its military.
In a recent Online Debate, East Asia specialists Richard Halloran and John J. Tkacik Jr. discuss China’s military might, as well as U.S. policy toward Beijing. Halloran, a longtime military reporter for the New York Times, says the United States needs “not so much a change in policy as the forging of a policy” toward China. Tkacik, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, goes a step further, saying Washington’s focus on Iraq “means there’s no thought given to what kind of an Asia we want to see in the twenty-first century.” As a result, he says, “we have no roadmap for achieving it.” A new Backgrounder examines Washington’s policy toward Asia under the Bush administration, concerns over America’s lost prestige in the region, and approaches to recouping U.S. standing there.
A recent Congressional Research Service report explores the divergent views held by U.S. officials on how to approach China policy.
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Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.
In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
Complete list of CFR Books
The report of this bipartisan Task Force of distinguished leaders and experts represents a strong consensus on the importance of repairing America's immigration policy. It makes the case that maintaining America's political and economic leadership depends on attracting talented and hard-working immigrants, and on securing the country's borders in a smart, effective, and humane way.
This report finds that nuclear weapons will remain a fundamental element of U.S. national security in the near term, and makes recommendations on how to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. deterrent nuclear force, prevent nuclear terrorism, and strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR
Complete list of Task Force reports
Identifying international threats and acting on them may be the most difficult job for U.S. policymakers. This report
provides an actionable road map for managing international threats before they erupt into crises and makes a strong case that preventive action is not a luxury but a necessity.
For more than a decade, the United States has mostly watched from the sidelines as Asian countries organize themselves into an alphabet soup of new multilateral groups. In this report, the authors review the relationship between pan-Asian and trans-Pacific institutions and suggest policy guidelines for a new U.S. approach to this new Asian landscape.
Complete list of Council Special Reports
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