Xi-Obama meeting to chart future course of China-US ties

As Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama is ready to meet for the first time after the leadership transition in both nations, analysts say the June 7-8 summit in the U.S. state of California will chart the course of future development of China-U.S. relations. They also believe that the meeting will show that China is determined to follow a policy of all-dimensional diplomacy, peaceful development and all-win cooperation. SHARED DEMANDS AND COMMON RESPONSIBILITIES At the moment, both China and the United States are working to boost their economies, promote employment, improve people's livelihood and advance economic restructuring. The expansion of bilateral cooperation in all sectors will benefit the two peoples. Thus, a healthy development of the China-U.S. relationship is needed by both sides. Chas Freeman, former U.S. assistant secretary of defense, told Xinhua in a recent interview that China and the United States are economically interdependent and politically engaged, yet there is potential for further development. In fact, since the two nations completed their respective leadership transitions, the bilateral ties have seen a good start as Xi and Obama talked over phone, and a number of senior U.S. officials visited China one after another, including Secretary of Finance Jacob Lew, Secretary of State John Kerry, and Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Ruan Zongze, deputy head of the China Institute of International Studies, said the upcoming Xi-Obama meeting could help shape the development of the China-U.S. relationship. "The China-U.S. relations are now facing many opportunities as well as problems. Yet we cannot be burdened by these problems. Instead, we should look at the relationship from a long-term perspective," he said. Ruan also said that the meeting could be a chance for the two leaders to shape the future bilateral ties in ways that are different from previous patterns. Around the world, the Asia-Pacific region is where China and the United States share the most overlapping interests. Therefore, it is their common task to figure out how to maintain peace and promote cooperation in the region. Right now, the Asia-Pacific region sees the fastest economic growth worldwide, and has been a major force to boost global economic recovery. However, the region also faces a series of uncertainties, like the rocky situation in the Korean Peninsula, regional territorial disputes, and the U.S. policy of pivoting to Asia. During his visit to the United States as China's vice president in February last year, Xi said the vast Pacific region has enough space for the development of both China and the United States, which should engage each other in a positive way in the region. And it is expected that during their upcoming meeting, Xi and Obama would communicate and coordinate with each other over political, economic and security matters in the Asia-Pacific region. Across the globe, the humankind is facing a number of common challenges, such as the sluggish global economic recovery, trade protectionism, flawed monetary policies, constant unrests in West Asia and North Africa -- the Syrian conflict in particular, the Iranian nuclear issue, and climate change. Jin Canrong, associate dean of the School of International Studies at Renmin University in Beijing, said that over the past 20 plus years, the accelerating industrialization on the global scale has, on the one hand, symbolized a huge socioeconomic advancement, while on the other hand has generated many global problems. There is a louder call for global governance. No nation can handle these problems alone, he said, adding they must join their hands in actions. "Therefore, the enhanced cooperation between China and the United States is not only necessary for the two nations themselves, but also for the world at large. And the two countries should share their responsibilities in this regard," he said. Nicholas R. Lardy, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, said the United States and China, the world's top two largest economies, should deepen their cooperation and enhance coordination especially at a time when the debt crisis in the euro-zone has overshadowed the future prospects of global economy. STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION In the development of China-U.S. relations, there is not only pragmatic cooperation, but also strategic communication. To some extent, strategic communication plays a more crucial role and in fact sets the level of pragmatic cooperation. According to some sources, strategic communication will be a priority in the upcoming meeting between Xi and Obama. Tao Wenzhao, a fellow of the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the Sino-U.S. summit is the highest-level strategic communication between the two sides. Although there are more than 90 platforms for communication and cooperation between Beijing and Washington at various levels, the face-to-face meetings between top leaders remain the most important mechanism of dialogues, Tao said. During his recent meeting with Kerry, Xi highlighted the importance of high-level communication, saying he would like to maintain contact with President Obama. Xi also called on the two countries to make the best of the mechanisms of the China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue and the China-U.S. High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange. At present, China and the United States have agreed to make joint efforts in building a cooperative partnership and exploring ways to develop a new type of relationship between big powers. But the two sides need to enhance their strategic mutual trust, which remains a pressing task. When meeting with visiting U.S. Treasury Secretary Lew in March, President Xi urged the two countries to objectively view each other's development stages, respect each other's interests for further development and regard the other side's opportunity and challenges as its own. Thomas Donilon, U.S. national security advisor, dismissed the idea of "confrontation" or "containment" existing between the two powers during a foreign policy speech at the Asia Society in March. On the perception that the rise of a new power has often led to conflict with an established one, Donilon said this pattern does not necessarily apply to the U.S.-China relations, adding that Washington welcomes a peaceful and prosperous Beijing. Jin, from the School of International Studies at Renmin University, said that the zero-sum game theory has led to intense clashes between established powers and emerging ones, and thus President Xi has proposed setting up a new type of relations between major powers. The upcoming meeting between the top Chinese and U.S. leaders may provide a roadmap for establishing such a relationship, Jin added. Ruan, from the China Institute of International Studies, stressed that the two nations need to respect each other's differences, saying that the two sides need to outline the prospects of the China-U.S. ties from a new perspective. CHINA'S ALL-DIMENSIONAL DIPLOMACY The meeting between Xi and Obama next month could also be viewed as an important move for the new Chinese leadership to promote all-dimensional diplomacy in a new era. Before the meeting, Xi will pay state visits to Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica and Mexico. In March, Xi visited Russia, Tanzania, South Africa and the Republic of the Congo. This was his first trip abroad as China's new head of state. Xi also attended the fifth BRICS summit in Durban, South Africa. In April, Xi attended the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2013 in south China's Hainan province. He made a key-note speech at the opening session of the forum and met many foreign leaders on the sidelines of the forum. Currently, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is visiting India, the first leg of his first foreign trip since he took office in March. He will also visit Pakistan, Switzerland and Germany. "In a couple of months, Chinese leaders have already traveled to several continents of the world. China is conducting an all-dimensional diplomacy in a new fashion," said Tao from the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The China-U.S. relationship is one of the world's most important bilateral ties, whose global influence has gone far beyond ordinary state-to-state relations, Ruan said. He added that the China-U.S. relationship has occupied a special place in China's all-dimensional diplomacy, which has influenced in one way or another China's relations with other big powers, its neighboring countries or international institutions. Under such circumstances, advancing the China-U.S. ties will create a favorable environment for the development of relations between China and other countries, Ruan added. China's all-dimensional diplomacy has highlighted the notion of peaceful development, win-win cooperation and a community of shared destiny that Beijing has long adhered to.