{"id":22730,"date":"2015-09-30T14:00:49","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T04:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=22730"},"modified":"2015-09-30T13:07:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-30T03:07:00","slug":"letter-from-washington-the-xi-obama-summit-no-lovefest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/letter-from-washington-the-xi-obama-summit-no-lovefest\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter from Washington: the Xi\u2013Obama Summit, no lovefest"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President<\/a><\/figure>\n

This was never going to be an easy meeting between the leaders of one of the oldest democracies and the world\u2019s largest dictatorship. The two countries have an increasingly conflicted relationship: on the one hand, they are global partners, especially but not solely in the international economic sphere, but, on the other hand, their strategic rivalry, particularly in the Indo\u2013Pacific region, is becoming worrisome. Accordingly, the meeting went as well as one could expect. But given the trajectory of the bilateral relationship this summit may well be the last one with a veneer of courtesy.<\/p>\n

This meeting was, without any doubt, more important for Xi than Obama. This gave the Chinese president a public platform from which to be perceived back home as an equal (whether true or not) to the president of the sole superpower. It also gave Xi the opportunity to state publicly and forcefully\u2014as he did\u2014China\u2019s position on issues on which the two countries disagree. Let me focus on just three of these.<\/p>\n

The first issue on which the Obama administration has been particularly irritated about is cyber-theft. This was made abundantly clear when Obama suggested at a recent business roundtable, that the issue of cyberattacks would \u2018probably be one of the biggest topics<\/a>\u2018 during President Xi\u2019s visit. And indeed it was. At their joint press conference, Obama said that he had told Xi that cyberattacks against US targets \u2018had to stop\u2019<\/a>. In response, Xi pledged<\/a> that the Chinese government wouldn\u2019t \u2018in whatever form engage in commercial theft and hacking against government networks\u2019.<\/p>\n

Given that, according to US officials, China was behind the recent theft of the security files of some 22 million Americans, not too many people are convinced in Washington that the Chinese government will stop cyber theft, or prevent Chinese companies from doing so against US companies. There\u2019s little doubt that were the Chinese caught once again hacking and stealing American trade secrets that the US administration would impose a package of economic sanctions<\/a> against China, as per an executive order signed by President Obama in April.<\/p>\n

The second issue, of particular interest to Australia, is China\u2019s aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea. President Obama broached the issue directly at the joint press conference, stating that he \u2018had significant concerns\u2019 over China\u2019s reclamation activities which made it more difficult to resolve disagreements peacefully\u2019. Xi didn\u2019t budge and instead asserted that China was acting within its rights and that it wasn\u2019t pursuing any militarisation. Any wishful thinking that China would embrace Washington\u2019s recent proposal<\/a>\u00a0for Beijing to halt land reclamation and end militarization was put to rest absolutely there and then.<\/p>\n

A third issue on which there was unsurprisingly no movement was human rights in China. Obama forcefully re-iterated his \u2018deep concerns\u2019 over this matter, and, in return, Xi, as all previous Chinese leaders have done in the past, repeated the well-worn mantra that \u2018countries have different historical processes\u2019. Given Xi\u2019s heavy-handed approach to any<\/em> opposition since he came to power in 2012, it\u2019s no surprise that thousands of political prisoners<\/a> are languishing in jails and will remain there for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

Still, the summit wasn\u2019t all bad news. The big surprise was of course Xi\u2019s announcement of a selective cap-and-trade emission plan that would kick in by 2017. Given China\u2019s massive environmental problems and its status as the world\u2019s biggest polluter, this was welcomed by US officials and environmentalists. But many are sceptical<\/a> that this ambitious plan can be implemented so quickly. Nevertheless, it\u2019s a step in the right direction, and it now puts pressure on the US Congress to also take stronger action on climate change.<\/p>\n

However, the good news on the climate change front did little to dispel Washington\u2019s concerns about China\u2019s overall behaviour. And some of its latest actions have done nothing to assuage those feelings. Aside from the issues discussed above, it\u2019s obvious that China is increasingly flexing its muscles well beyond its immediate neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

The PLA Navy has been making deep forays into the Indian Ocean, including having submarines berth in Sri Lanka and Pakistan<\/a> earlier this year. Even more worrisome is the report that a Chinese aircraft carrier<\/a> has been sited off the Syrian coast in the last few days and Chinese advisers are on their way. But to demonstrate that they too can hug the other\u2019s coastline, Chinese navy ships were spotted<\/a> inside US territorial waters off Alaska during Obama\u2019s visit to that state earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, all this is grist for the Republican Party mill. A number of presidential candidates, with Trump leading the pack<\/a>, even suggested that Obama cancel the summit. Even Hillary Clinton<\/a> has jumped on the anti-Chinese bandwagon.<\/p>\n

So while there are areas where China and the US can work together, strategic competition between the two nations is real and is more than likely to become nasty down the road. The recent Xi\u2013Obama summit has done nothing to dispel this perception.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was never going to be an easy meeting between the leaders of one of the oldest democracies and the world\u2019s largest dictatorship. 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