Senior US officials in China for 3-day trip
- Source: Global Times
- [02:21 September 06 2010]
- Comments
By Wang Zhaokun
Two senior US officials arrived in Beijing Sunday for a three-day visit to China following a flurry of diplomatic spats between the two powers in recent months.
China's foreign ministry said Thursday that US National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers and Deputy National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon would visit China from September 5 to 8 to "have an in-depth exchange of views on China-US relations and other major issues of common interest."
The White House also said in a statement Thursday that the two officials would travel to China to "discuss a wide range of issues touching on bilateral and international issues."
Wu Xinbo, a professor at the Center for American Studies of Fudan University, told the Global Times that the visit by the American officials is a routine one agreed upon in June, when President Hu Jintao met with the US President Barack Obama in Canada, and it shows that both governments hope to improve current bilateral rela-tions.
Tensions between China and the US have risen in recent months due to differences in a series of issues.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in July that Washington had an interest in preserving free shipping lanes in the South China Sea, and that territorial disputes between China and other countries in the area should be solved through multilateral talks.
Clinton's remarks were refuted by Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, who accused the US of trying to internationalize the issue, and said that the South China Sea disputes should be solved through bilateral negotiations.
China also strongly opposed the naval exercises held by the US and South Korea in waters close to the Yellow Sea after the sinking a South Korean warship.
Forbes Columnist Gordon Chang suggested that the visit could be an "apology tour."
However, Jin Canrong from the International Relations Department at the People's University of China believes such speculation is not reality.
"It is more like a trip to communicate with Chinese. Both sides realize they need dialog because they share many mutual interests," Jin said.
"The scheduled visit shows that recent diplomatic frictions haven't affected bilateral relations on the whole," said Wang Yizhou, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, adding that confrontation should not dominate the ties between China and the US, the two major economic powers in the world.
"However, we can't expect the bilateral relations to be smooth forever," Wang said. "When the ties deteriorate, we shall not be overly pessimistic; when they improve, we shall not be overly optimistic, either."
