What President Obama Should Bring to Beijing

In a world of foreign policy resets, rethinks, and redoes, U.S. President Barack Obama’s China strategy is right on track. The Asia pivot or rebalance makes core U.S. interests—freedom of trade and investment, freedom of navigation, and human rights—clear to Beijing in an effective and compelling manner. And within this framework, the United States has engaged China on multiple fronts, including expanding the military-to-military relationship, restarting talks on a bilateral investment treaty (BIT), and supporting all manner of capacity building in the legal, environmental, and public health arenas.

Of course, no one would argue that the U.S.-China relationship is strong; it isn’t. It is plagued by distrust, competition, and competing values, priorities, and policy approaches. Yet that doesn’t mean that both sides shouldn’t continue to seek common ground and cooperate when possible. Here are some ideas for President Obama to consider as the leader of the free world sits down with a leader of the not-so-free world this week in Beijing at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

All this being said, the future of Asia is not wholly or even mostly going to be determined by the United States and China. The region is chock full of major economies, large populations, and nationalistic leaders and citizens, all of whom have their own perspective on what an Asian century might mean. Both Xi and Obama should remember this most of all as they attempt to pursue their own visions for the region.