Quotes of the Day
When Richard Nixon flew into Beijing on the morning of February 21, 1972, Mao Zedong was so thrilled, he wanted the U.S. President to come straight from the airport to meet him. Mao had been seriously ill for weeks: resuscitation equipment was hidden behind potted plants in his residence in case he collapsed during the meeting. The Chairman was fitted with a new Mao suit to conceal edematous bloating. That morning he had his first haircut in five months.
Nixon was allowed to go from the airport to a guest bungalow, and to lunch with Premier Zhou Enlai. But then he was whisked to meet Mao, and the history books describe a meeting of civilizations that was as weird and awkward as it was historic. Mao and Zhou wanted to discuss the recent coup attempt by Lin Biao, Mao's chosen successor; Nixon didn't seem to understand them. He and Henry Kissinger flattered the Chairman. When Kissinger referred to Mao as a "professional philosopher," Mao laughed and asked, "He is a doctor of philosophy?" Nixon's reply: "He is a doctor of brains."
Chinese President Hu Jintao's meeting with George W. Bush this week in New York, on the sidelines of the United Nations' 60th anniversary celebration, continues the series of encounters between top American and Chinese leaders that started in 1972. With each meeting, the drama and historical import has diminished. That's a positive thing, a sign of how profoundly the U.S.-China relationship has deepened in three decades. When Deng Xiaoping met Jimmy Carter in the White House in 1979—memorable quote: "Has your Congress passed a law that I cannot smoke?"—the bamboo curtain had just been prized open: full diplomatic relations between the two countries were only four weeks old, and the first imports from China—lots of wicker baskets—were just hitting American stores. Today, the U.S. and China trade more than $200 billion in goods a year: American families watch televisions produced in China from Chinese-made sofa sets, and major U.S. corporations consider China one of their most important markets. Each country has thousands of bureaucrats whose careers are spent guiding the relationship through precipitous highs (China joining the World Trade Organization in 2001) and stomach-churning lows (the U.S. bombing of Beijing's embassy in Belgrade in 1999).
When presidents meet, the roller coaster is supposed to give way to two individuals in a golf cart taking the speed bumps at the lowest possible velocity. The U.S.-China relationship has so many bumps, you could call it corrugated: competition for oil resources; U.S. concern over China's military buildup, its trade deficit and human rights abuses; China's worries over rising protectionism in the U.S., and its resentment at being treated with what it calls a "cold war mentality." But Bush and Hu, while hardly chums, have met five times before at such forums as APEC and the G8 summit, and fireworks aren't expected. (A more formal summit in Washington was cancelled due to Hurricane Katrina.) Analysts in both Washington and Beijing say the meeting will probably be dominated by not-so-tough talk on what they call the Three Ts: trade, terrorism and Taiwan. But there could be surprises: British Prime Minister Tony Blair wound up a two-day trip to Beijing last week in which he spent eight hours interacting with Hu's number two, Premier Wen Jiabao. Blair praised Wen's "frankness and openness."
At the start of what many are predicting will be the "Chinese century," Washington and Beijing are partners in charting the world's future. So what should Hu and Bush be discussing? To answer that question, Time surveyed some of the most involved watchers of the U.S.-China relationship. A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, according to the old Chinese saying. What follows is a survey of opinions on the direction in which Hu and Bush should be heading.
Yan Xuetong
Director, Institute of International Studies, Tsinghua University, Beijing
First, President Hu should tell President Bush that both sides need to manage the relationship better, and that America's containment policy won't work. Second, China hopes the U.S. will stop arms sale to Taiwan because it is encouraging Taiwan secessionists. Third, Chinese have the same right as Americans to enjoy a rich lifestyle and do not appreciate the double standard on China's oil policy. The issue should not become politicized, as when CNOOC made its bid to buy Unocal.
John Kamm
Executive Director, Dui Hua Foundation, San Francisco
President Bush should surprise President Hu by putting human rights at the top of the agenda. When China releases political and religious prisoners—labor organizers, peaceful protesters, journalists, scholars dealing in "state secrets," Catholic priests and Tibetan nuns—its image for the American people and their representatives in Washington improves more than when it buys a fleet of airplanes or announces another round of six-party talks on North Korea.
Hou Wenzhuo
Director, Empowerment and Rights Institute, Beijing
I have been in trouble lately because of my work promoting the rights of individuals. Police have searched the offices of my institute and confined me to my home for 10 days during the recent trip to Beijing of the U.N. Human Rights Commissioner. But my problems are minor compared to those of many Chinese, and I think Presidents Bush and Hu should strengthen their dialogue on human rights—especially to highlight the persecution of people who come to Beijing seeking the redress of wrongs committed by local officials.
David D. Ho
Director & CEO, Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, New York
It is time for China to place greater importance on one of the hidden costs of its economic rise: the lack of adequate health care for much of its population. Another influenza pandemic capable of killing tens of millions of people is inevitable, especially as the deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus is plaguing many parts of Asia today.
Peter Mandelson
E.U. Trade Commissioner
We should not begrudge China the fruits of its development and the benefits of its wto membership. But if China does not understand the need to temper its impact on the rest of the world, it risks provoking a dangerous backlash from those who should be its friends and partners.
Paul Gewirtz
Director, China Law Center, Yale Law School
Legal reform in China is crucial to many aspects of China's development—advancing a market economy, protecting human rights, fighting corruption, encouraging foreign investment, and fully integrating China into the world community. People outside of China, as well as inside of China, have a stake in these things. So it would be valuable for President Bush to emphasize the importance of the rule of law when he meets President Hu.
Bob Carr
Premier of New South Wales, 1995-2005
As the two Presidents meet, the polar caps are melting. China and America must talk global warming. Specifically they must discuss a strategy to curb the rising carbon emissions that, over the next 40 years, will deliver a rise in average global temperatures of a full two degrees. Every scientist knows how dangerous that is.
Wang Xiaodong
Researcher, China Youth Research Center, Beijing
The Taiwan issue is the most urgent short-term problem in Sino-U.S. relations, but I believe two other issues are more important in the long term. One is relations between China and Japan. Second, as China grows stronger, the country will be obligated to play a larger role in maintaining world order. The U.S. needs to decide how to accept China.
Mark Kirk
Member, U.S. House of Representatives
The number one issue right now is North Korea and U.S. joint diplomacy. North Korea utterly depends on China for fuel and food. If China were to interrupt those supplies, a Chinese initiative to North Korea would be listened to.
Kang Chul Hwan
North Korean defector, met President Bush in June
First, they should fine-tune their positions on the North Korean nuclear issue in order to resolve it. Second, I hope President Bush will discuss the issue of North Korean refugees in China. China has been so hard on these refugees that I hope the U.S. will work to protect these people somehow.
Fred Hu
Managing Director, Goldman Sachs (Asia), Hong Kong
Despite stunning economic and social progress in the past quarter of a century, the average American still paints China in red: a nation seized by radical communist ideologies. In reality, today's China is a freewheeling and prosperous capitalist economy, rapidly converging on an American-style economic and social system based on entrepreneurship and free trade. President Hu should be China's super-salesman to convince Americans to accept China as an equal partner, not as a threatening enemy.
Ma Ying-jeou
Chairman, Kuomintang, Taiwan
The central theme of their conversation will probably focus on security and stability in the west Pacific in view of the joint military exercise by Russia and China. But as the leader of the opposition party in Taiwan, I certainly would like to see more stability across the Taiwan Strait.
Orville Schell
Dean, Graduate School of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley
If the two presidents could agree that an ever increasing quotient of true democracy was actually China's declared long-range goal—even though its progress in that direction might be piecemeal—the two countries might then be able to establish a more synergistic and stable basis of expectation for future collaboration on other important issues.
Richard Gere
Actor and activist
A most important issue facing President Bush and President Hu is to resolve the status of Tibet and the Tibetan people—and it is resolvable. Instead of addressing this issue in the usual rigid political framework, they should focus their discussion on human development and cultural survival as a way of achieving peace and stability in the region. By acknowledging the link between conflict and inequality, China could lead the international community in a far more constructive direction. Since economic development and cultural continuity are basic human rights, a discussion based on this framework would also allow President Bush to congratulate President Hu on China's current efforts to respect and protect human rights in China and Tibet—efforts that could greatly improve the Tibetan people's situation and enhance China's reputation internationally.
Hu Shuli
Editor, Caijing magazine, Beijing
President Hu should take the opportunity to demonstrate that China is committed to further integration with the world economic system, that this process is comprehensively irreversible, that this policy is in China's own fundamental interest, and finally, that this process will not go smoothly without help from the West, especially from the U.S.
Clyde Prestowitz
Author, Three Billion New Capitalists
As leaders of the countries at the heart of the trade picture and with the highest greenhouse gas emissions, Presidents Bush and Hu would do well to make establishing cooperation on dealing effectively with these two issues the major part of their upcoming agenda.
"Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung
Member of the Legislative Council, Hong Kong
I think President Hu should tell Bush to respect human rights. And President Bush should tell Hu to make dramatic political reform.
- Anthony Spaeth
- U.S. President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao have to keep the world's most important relationship on an even keel