Wednesday 24 December 2008


THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF SINO-US RELATIONS

Jing-dong Yuan

Asia Times, December 24, 2008

MONTEREY, California - Sino-United States relations in 2008 continue to remain relatively stable despite the fact that this was an election year in the United States. In past US presidential elections, the China issues tended to be raised by candidates for partisan and electoral purposes. Bill Clinton, for example, criticized president George W H Bush's China policy while candidate George W Bush characterized China as a strategic competitor.

However, this year, China has more or less stayed out of US presidential politics. While both president-elect Barack Obama and John McCain raised some contentious issues regarding the bilateral relationship that range from trade deficits to human rights, by and large the two candidates also emphasized the importance of maintaining a stable relationship with a rising power.

The high point of the bilateral relationship, from Beijing's perspective, was President Bush's attendance to the August 8 opening ceremony of the 29th Olympic Games. The Chinese were especially appreciative of Bush's decision to go to Beijing against calls for boycott in the aftermath of the March riots in Tibet, and despite the criticism of China's positions on the Darfur issue that led many world leaders to stay out of the opening ceremony. Bush went as he originally had committed, attended the official opening of the new US embassy in Beijing and encouraged respect for human rights and freedom of expression in China.

(...) [artículo aquí]

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