What Do We Want From Beijing?

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AP

Nixon shakes hands with Mao on historic trip, 1972.

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While pushing for a relaxation of political control, Washington has made clear that the relationship won't hinge on Beijing's domestic politics. Among U.S. grievances with China in the early '90s, human rights took second place to copyright. Regulating the trade relationship with Beijing, through a body such as the World Trade Organization, became essential when U.S. companies manufacturing in China found that local factories were producing cut-rate copies of their products, and the entertainment industry discovered it was losing hundreds of millions of dollars revenue because of Chinese audio and video piracy.

Besides the challenges it presents for U.S. business, China remains a geopolitical rival to Washington in Asia, looking to extend its sphere of influence way beyond its present geographic boundaries. The two countries have a cordial business alliance -- China's holding the line against pressure to devalue its currency in the face of the Asian meltdown made it a more important ally than Japan last year -- but their competition for influence in the continent is likely to intensify in the next century. Washington now faces the improbable dilemma of having the world's largest remaining communist power hold the largest share of the ballooning U.S. trade deficit. And, of course, as China's economic power grows, so does its potential rivalry with the U.S. on that front, too -- a fact driving the tough negotiations over the commercial rules governing Beijing's entry into the World Trade Organization.

Congressional spats over China will come and go with the tides of politics, but continued engagement presents complex challenges. Washington's dealings with the Soviets were confined to diplomacy and military pressure; China has been at once a target of U.S. missiles and of U.S. investors. "In both geopolitical and economic terms, China is likely to be the United States' biggest competitor in the next century," says Dowell. "And they don't regard us in friendly terms -- they see us as an obstacle to some of their goals. It's obvious that the U.S. needs to remain engaged with Beijing, but Washington's interests need to be more clearly defined, so that more caution can be applied in areas where those conflict with China's."

The Beijing-Washington relationship isn't based on mutual admiration; it's based on mutual self-interest. Washington's challenge is to closely examine where its 21st century interests converge with those of Beijing, and also where those interests diverge.

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