TMCnet News
EDITORIAL: Engage China(Orlando Sentinel, The (FL) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 22--President Hu Jintao of China visited the White House this week amid growing impatience in Congress over his country's huge $202 billion trade surplus with the United States. The lack of a breakthrough on that and other contentious issues in U.S.-Chinese relations will add to pressure on Capitol Hill to strike out at Beijing. But President George W. Bush's policy, which he reiterated in welcoming Mr. Hu, of "expanding free and fair trade" with China remains in America's best interests. By building on those economic ties, the United States will have more leverage in persuading China to move toward policies that will bring down its trade surplus. Those policies include raising the artificially low value of its currency -- which makes Chinese imports cheaper and U.S. exports more expensive -- reducing other barriers to imports, and doing far more to protect U.S. intellectual property. As an economic partner, Washington also will have more success enlisting Beijing's critical cooperation in confronting international problems, including terrorism, pandemics, scarce energy and the nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea. And Mr. Bush will have more influence urging Mr. Hu to improve China's abysmal human-rights record and reconsider its backing for rogue regimes. Easily overlooked in the bad news about China's trade surplus with the United States is the fact that China has become the fastest growing market for U.S. exports. China is now the United States' fourth biggest export market after Mexico, Canada and Japan. Touring the United States last week, a group of Chinese trade officials and business executives signed contracts to purchase $16.2 billion worth of U.S. products. The total included 80 jets -- worth $5.2 billion at list prices -- manufactured by Boeing Corp. On a visit this week to a Boeing factory, Mr. Hu said Chinese airlines are likely to need 2,000 more planes in the next 20 years. The share of China's economy attributable to consumer spending is gradually rising. As millions more Chinese enter the middle class and gain purchasing power, opportunities for U.S. manufacturers will expand. But some members of Congress have proposed slapping high tariffs on all Chinese imports to the United States if Beijing doesn't immediately jack up the value of its currency. That could spark a trade war and spoil any hope for Chinese cooperation with the United States on international problems. Let there be no illusions about China. It is still an authoritarian country that crushes dissent. It is engaged in a military buildup. In its quest for energy, it has cozied up to unsavory regimes. It still threatens Taiwan. But the United States will be in a stronger position to encourage reform and more responsible behavior from China by being economically engaged, not estranged. |