Political India: Engaging America

From The Hindu

Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping is clearly a West-Coast man. Soaking in California's excellent sunny weather, on Friday Mr. Xi enjoyed the hospitality of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, attended a Lakers game, and even managed to mend fences with Hollywood by sorting out a long-standing World Trade Organisation dispute on Chinese movie imports, a far cry from the relatively formal, sometimes-tense exchanges that he encountered in Washington a few days ago.


Even his harshest critic on this visit, his counterpart Joseph Biden, appeared to melt a little and complimented Mr. Xi on the movie deal. He said, “This agreement with China will make it easier than ever before for U.S. studios and independent filmmakers to reach the fast-growing Chinese audience, supporting thousands of American jobs in and around the film industry.”

U.S. access to China's burgeoning movies market has been a sore point for a while now and the conflict had escalated to the WTO after the government of Chinese government last year did not meet a WTO deadline to ease restrictions. According to the White House, China is a major export market for Hollywood and the U.S. enjoys a $12-billion global trade surplus on films and other audiovisual products.

The deal notwithstanding Mr. Biden, it appeared, could not resist reiterating the message that was frequently mentioned to Mr. Xi in Washington, that China had to provide U.S. businesses with a level playing field for economic competition.

“The crux of our discussions is that competition only benefits everyone if the rules to the game are fair and followed. So we will continue to work with the Vice President and the Chinese government to make sure that everyone is playing by the same rules on a level playing field,” he said, at a luncheon in honour of Mr. Xi.

From The Hindu

Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping, on a high-profile tour of the United States has had a slew of unprecedented honours heaped upon him by Washington. Yet he has stood firm in articulating some of China's positions on its core national interests — most significantly its insistence that the U.S. respect its “one-state policy” regarding the territories of Taiwan and Tibet.


Speaking at an event hosted by the U.S.-China Business Council and the National Council on U.S.-China Relations, Mr. Xi was quoted as saying he hoped that the U.S. would “truly honour” its commitments to recognising the territories as part of the People's Republic of China.

Linking the “one-state policy” question to the U.S. military's stated “pivot” towards the Asia-Pacific region, he was noted to have said, “China welcomes the U.S. playing a constructive role in promoting the peace, stability and prosperity.”

However he reportedly added, “At the same time we hope the U.S. side will truly respect the interests and concerns of countries in the region, including China.”

From The Hindu

Reflecting the mixture of bonhomie and acerbic disagreement in the United States-China relationship, the ongoing talks between visiting Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterparts appeared to swing between warmth and cold dissonance — the latter mostly on the human rights question.


In the brief two days that he has spent here, Mr. Xi, acknowledged by U.S. officials to be the future head of the Chinese political system, has held talks with President Barack Obama, Vice-President Joseph Biden and other top officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defence Secretary Leon Panetta.

He has been accorded top honours during his time in Washington, including a 19-gun salute and an honour guard of 350 troops in an unprecedented Pentagon ceremony for a foreign Vice-President.

For all the repeated assertions by the White House that U.S.-China cooperation mattered for the entire world, specifically in North Korea and Iran, and for global issues such as climate change and nuclear security, it was the sharp divergence on a range of core issues that grabbed the headlines.

Leading the charge was Mr. Biden, who said at a State Department luncheon that the relationship could be mutually beneficial only “if the game is fair”. He added that in meetings with Mr. Xi, the U.S. had discussed its areas of greatest concern, “including the need to rebalance the global economy, protect intellectual property rights and trade secrets, to address China's undervalued exchange rate, to level the competitive playing field”. Mr. Biden also did not mince his words when he said the U.S. “strongly disagreed with China and Russia's veto of a resolution against the unconscionable violence being perpetrated by the Assad regime [in Syria]”.

The strongest words came from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey, who said he believed “Someone in China is hacking into our systems and stealing technology and intellectual property, which at this point is a crime.”

Even President Obama did not hold back on candid critique of China's record on human rights, saying to Mr. Xi at the Oval Office, “On critical issues like human rights, we will continue to emphasise what we believe is the importance of recognising the aspirations and rights of all people.”

Mr. Xi, however, did not allow his interlocutors to escape unchallenged and hit back at Mr. Biden saying, “We should address each other's economic and trade concerns through dialogue and consultation, not protectionism.” In his rebuttal on the human rights questions, Mr. Xi struck a balanced tone, insisting China had made “tremendous and well-recognised” progress while admitting that there was “always room for improvement”.

From The Hindu

Washington and Beijing prepared to reengage in a week-long bilateral tango on a tightrope as Chinese Vice-President and presumptive leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping left for the United States on Monday.


Mr. Xi's visit will be closely followed for insights into the man expected to lead China for the next decade, as well as guide its relations with Washington amid growing tensions. In a pre-visit call with media, White House officials clearly indicated their appreciation of Mr. Xi's position. Daniel Russel, Senior Director for Asian Affairs, said, “Building a relationship with the official in China who seems likely destined to be a central figure in the Chinese political system for years to come obviously is important....”

However Mr. Xi left Beijing with a stern message for the U.S. aimed at its recent focus on rebuilding strategic alliances in the Asia-Pacific, seen by many in China as a move to contain its rise. “At a time when people long for peace, stability and development, to deliberately give prominence to the military security agenda, scale up military deployment and strengthen military alliances is not really what most countries in the region hope to see,” he said in a written interview with the Washington Post.

The U.S.' strategic concerns in Asia appeared to be heavily weighted in the planned policy agenda during Mr. Xi's visit. While officials emphasised their belief that the Chinese “share our view that Iran should not be permitted to develop a nuclear weapon,” they added that this visit would see the U.S. “consistently [address] with the Chinese the importance of not backfilling the sanctions that are in place... and [press] the Chinese on continuing to vigorously enforce sanctions.” The White House reiterated its message that “the Chinese and the Russians made the wrong decision in vetoing the recent U.N. Security Council resolution [relating to Syria].”

Officials are likely to face the thorniest area in the bilateral relationship, economics, head-on in the discussions. Even prior to Mr. Xi's departure, top Chinese officials have expressed concern about a “trust deficit” between the two countries amid rising trade disputes. “We must not allow frictions and differences to undermine the larger interests of our business cooperation,” Mr. Xi said in the Post interview. China would address concerns on Intellectual Property Rights protection and the trade imbalance, he said, but also sought the removal of restrictions on high-tech exports to China.

On the U.S. side, the well-worn complaints about Chinese business practices seemed to be of high priority still. Michael Froman, Deputy National Security Advisor, said, “Over the last few years there's been increasing frustration by the business community about practices that China engages in that they view as being mercantilist and creating an unlevel playing field. And that includes subsidies for their own national champions, as well as policies designed to compel the transfer of technology and their violation of intellectual property rights. So we certainly hear a much louder chorus of complaints from American companies about business with China.”

Yet American officials may face a stout rebuttal on some counts from their experienced interlocutor. Mr. Xi is seen as a more international and outgoing leader than President Hu Jintao. This week's visit is not his first to the U.S. – he travelled to Iowa, where he will return this week, 27 years ago when he was a provincial official in central Hebei. He is known to have a love for Hollywood cinema – he will also visit Los Angeles on this trip – and basketball. But whether his charisma can soothe what is seen as a long list of strains is far from clear.

His greatest challenge may be the human rights question, on which the U.S. has repeatedly pressed senior Chinese officials. On this subject Mr. Russel noted, “It is an area of grave concern for us to witness the increase of tensions in Tibet and we are... tracking this very closely with real concern.”