Relations with China normalizing

By: the Richmond Times-Dispatch | The Daily Progress
Published: February 17, 2012

Forty years ago President Richard Nixon went to China. The trip made history.

This year Xi Jinping is visiting the United States. The tour introduces Americans to the man expected to become China’s next president.

China practices what observers have called market Leninism. It allows capitalism of a certain kind but does not tolerate challenges to the party’s hegemony. China’s performance could challenge naive optimists who believe economic freedom leads toward political liberty.

The United States and China are competitors, not enemies. Prior to Nixon’s arrival in Beijing, the two counties had no relations. Their ties have become routine. Their interests sometimes coincide, sometimes conflict. China’s population ensures that it eventually will become the world’s largest economy. Largest does not mean richest, however. China has a long way to go before it catches up with the U.S. and the rest of the industrial world.

Countries always seek to maximize their economic and political influence. China actively promotes its interests in Africa, for instance, and throughout the Pacific Rim. The Obama administration’s emphasis on the Pacific’s consequences for national security is welcome. Although war may seem obsolete, power has not lost its ability to impress and to beguile. A muscular U.S. Navy is essential to global tranquility.

If relations between the U.S. and China need not be hostile, then the U.S. should not fear taking stands on behalf of freedom. China’s dissidents share a just cause. Taiwan remains a worthy ally as well. On the eve if Xi’s departure for the U.S., China denied a visa for America’s principal diplomat responsible for monitoring religious tolerance. The communists persecute believers of diverse faiths. The Obama administration did not protest the visa denial with public vigor.

Nixon’s 1972 breakthrough captivated the world. Xi’s trip seems routine. A shift from the momentous to the mundane is a sign of modest progress.

Adapted from the Richmond Times-Dispatch