Dragon upsets Uncle Sam

 

 

The Obama administration’s foreign policy started on a hopeful note especially vis-a-vis China. Efforts to infuse new life into military and economic cooperation, buttressed by the much hyped presidential visit to Beijing raised expectations. However, this initial exhilaration soon fizzled out, and today these two nations can’t seem to agree on any issue including sanctions on Iran, arms sales to Taiwan and nuclear proliferation of North Korea! No matter how much the US wants “strategic reassurances” from China and no matter how much the US Deputy Secretary of State, James Steinburg, emphasises on the areas of cooperation, the two countries converge in viewpoints only on cooperation in economy and in taming terrorism.

China is at odds with the US on a number of issues. The US strategy to persuade its allies in the Middle East to augment their oil exports to China in order to make it less reliant on Iran (read – to force China to move away from Iran) will undermine this bonhomie. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have already done that at America's insistence. China is unlikely to buckle under these indirect pressures from the US, as it has its own long term interests in Iran. The Chinese investment in the energy sector of Iran is $40 billion with booming bilateral trade worth $21.2 billion.

The confrontational postures between the US and China on climate change ensured that Copenhagen summit was a failed mission last year. These two nations between them account for about 40 per cent of the total global gas emissions, making them the two biggest greenhouse gas emitters in the world. Since they could not come to terms, no constructive legislation could be passed, much to the frustration of many European nations that were serious for a breakthrough. China was infuriated by the termination of climate change aid– which the US provides to all developing countries. The citation provided for this was that China had the largest foreign exchange reserves in the world, and thus was ineligible for such aid.

The US and its allies have been quite candid with their criticism on China’s close ties with North Korea, and its unwillingness to leverage the position in persuading Pyongyang to regress to talks. China on its part maintained that North Korea is not a Chinese stooge. China’s worst fear is the economic collapse of North Korea and its consequent political subversion– an opportunity that the US will grasp along with South Korea to set up American military base in the Korean peninsula! Therefore a strong and stable North Korea is in China’s interest who is the lone provider of foreign aid to Pyongyang.

Another bone of contention between the two countries is the arms sale to Taiwan by the US. In spite of the fact that arms deals worth $6.4 billion struck between the two allies is defensive by nature, China reacted angrily by suspending military exchanges and imposing sanctions on weapon manufacturers that traded with Taiwan. The initial euphoria that Obama brought into the Sino-American relationship has evaporated. What remains is acrimony, aggravation, opportunism and, of course, a bitter struggle for regional hegemony.