Sino-American Diplomacy - 30 Years Later

One of the many issues in foreign policy that Barack Obama will have to confront as President of the United States is this country's precarious relationship with China. I write this in observance of the fact that today marks the thirtieth anniversary of the establishment of full diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, which was the culmination of eight years of coming to terms with the fact that the Communist government was in full control of the mainland and there was no way, no how, that the Nationalists on Taiwan were ever going to return to power. It was a classic move of realpolitik; that is, the U.S. accepted that it was what it was. (The United States was the last Western power to normalize relations with Communist China; the United Kingdom was the first to do so, back in 1950, when it became apparent that Mao controlled the lease on Hong Kong.)

Since then, Sino-American relations have depended on some kind of cooperation for the sake of convenience, be it providing a dual counterweight to the now-defunct Soviet Union or maintaining stability in the eastern Asia. More recently, though, the issues between China and the United States have been economic ones, as we increasingly depend on the Chinese for our goods and debt financing and the Chinese see their economy in peril as a reaction to the sharp downturn in our own. This comes even as China continues to build its military power, expand its ties with Sudan, a country committing genocide in its Darfur region, and periodically threatens to annex Taiwan, which we are still obliged to defend.

It's time we establish a new Sino-American order. I believe Obama should take on the trade imbalance with more support for manufacturing at home and get tough with China on its disregard for human rights abroad as well as at home. Since I'm not nearly the expert in foreign affairs that the incoming President's advisers are, I'm certain that his foreign policy team is well ahead of me in thinking about how to deal with this issue.