Leaders told to build on gains in Sino-US ties
Saturday, December 14, 2002
china.scmp.com
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Washington
The United States and China must build on their best relations in at least a decade by widening their dialogue on battling global terrorism, analysts from both sides said after a landmark forum in Washington.
The meeting, jointly sponsored by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the National Committee of American Foreign Policy, united academics, former officials and business leaders from both sides.
Members of a Chinese academic delegation to the closed-session forum, known as the US-China Strategic Dialogue, secured meetings with senior members of the Bush administration, including National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.
"Relations are perhaps the best they have been in a decade. There is clearly a commitment on the Chinese side to anchor this," said CSIS Asia scholar Derek Mitchell.
Robert Scalapino, of the University of California at Berkeley, said the improvement in Sino-US relations since the September 11 attacks should prompt both sides to expand their talks on issues such as Taiwan, proliferation and human rights.
"I think we agree in the final analysis on the potential for a widening dialogue," Professor Scalapino said.
"The problems revolve around non-state actions, rogue states, perhaps more important faltering and failing states; these are some of the issue that we have to face in the year ahead."
But he warned such an approach would force China's rulers to confront uncomfortable truths.
"In this revolutionary period, a period of rapid change, there are going to be problems of stability in every country," he said.
"China, among others, has got to face the fact that their rapid development has produced a new degree of pluralism," he said referring to conflicts between the poor and better off, and the complaints of dissatisfied farmers and laid-off workers.
Zheng Bijian, chairman of the China Reform Forum, said the advantage of the non-government forum was that participants were able to tackle difficult questions head on. "There was broad consensus, and I mean consensus on a frank basis - not just a diplomatic cliche," he said.
CSIS senior vice-president Kurt Campbell said analysts on both sides had been encouraged by officials to come up with recommendations to expand anti-terror co-operation between China and the United States.
Senior members of the Bush administration have said they have been surprised and impressed with China's co-operation in stopping the flow of financing to terrorists, intelligence sharing and diplomatic help since the September 11 strikes. |
