US China Relations Essays - Economy Of China,

US China Relations After rather lengthy negotiations between the United States and China, there has been a trade agreement reached between the two countries. China has agreed to enter into the World Trade Organization (WTO). This along with U.S. Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Kurt Campbell's visit to China in an attempt to mend relations damaged by the U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, marked a good series of events for U.S. and Chinese relations. The article also shows that the relationship between these two countries still needs work which cannot be done with ease. A century ago, the U.S. fought off rival countries in a battle for economic influence in China. The 20th century began with U.S. Secretary of State Jon Hay arguing that whoever understood China "has the key to world politics for the next five centuries." Yet, according to the article, foreign policy experts agree that most Americans see what they want to see. Harvey Sicherman, President of the Foreign Policy Research Institute put it nicely in the article, "The pattern of our policy toward China is a series of illusions punctuated by unpleasantries." Professor Michael Hunt, an historian of U.S.-China relations points out, "We really invest a lot of hopes in China, we do this repeatedly, and they've really been crushed. They are so much an expression of our own needs and our own expectations." Take the idea of the China market. One Far-Eastern expert proclaimed at the end of the last century, "No other market in the world offers such vast and varied opportunities for the further increase of American exports." Take that comment with this one by the U.S. chamber of Commerce about the recent progress made, "This is really a landmark opportunity to open up China's vast market to American companies." These expectations could be dangerous, points out the author. The market might not even materialize into what many are predicting it to be. To achieve the"dream" of a billion-plus consumers of American products, China will have to raise the average income of its citizens which is no easy or short-term task. Such changes cannot happen overnight, China's move toward a market economy will require "systematic improvement" at all levels of society according to the author. One of the grandest illusions of Western Policy has been the reasoning that it can single-handedly change China. For more than a century Western missionaries, businessmen, and advisers have come to China believing in their "superiority" over the nation. This arrogance was present because they possessed advanced technical skills and a sense of moral rightness. These Westerners thought they should be welcomed and listened to immediately. When the Chinese went their own way, these same Westerners felt betrayed by the entire nation of China. The author points out a specific example of this occurring in 1949. When the Chinese Communist forces finally took over the mainland and established the People's Republic, many Americans engaged in a witch-hunt over who had "lost China", as if China was a thing that could be lost and also as if the United States had any control over the destiny of such an ancient and populous nation. A key to this historical arrogance is the American idea that market forces can rapidly transform an authoritarian government into a model democracy. U.S. trade negotiators still argue the current trade pact between China and the United States will help the Chinese achieve, in their words, "greater freedom and greater global prosperity." Robert Dallek, a foreign policy expert and presidential historian, says "Americans often think the end of such development is something that looks like the United States." This is an idea that goes way back to the 19th Century. According to Dallek, "Chinese movement toward democracy may never come about or even come near to what we think it should be." And if it does, "It will be their kind of capitalism, their kind of democracy." The author's points seem clear in that although much progress has been made in recent weeks, there is still a lot of work to be done. Yadong Liu, a former official in the Chinese Foreign Ministry, agrees with the author and does not see China's recent development as leading to the end of conflict with the United States. He emphasizes China's nationalism by claiming that , "Both the leadership and population in general are still driven by desire to restore China to what it was hundreds of years ago," before it was dominated by a series of foreign powers, including the United States. The author thinks of