China Perspective
Treat China with 'true equity' says leading scholar
By Wang Xing (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-21 07:54
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Beijing - The United States should abandon its long-held missionary attitude towards China, said David Shambaugh, director of the China Policy Program at George Washington University.
"The United States has always viewed China as an object to be reshaped," said Shambaugh, one of the world's leading scholars on China.
He said the US strategy to engage China and encourage the country to integrate into a world led by the US worked well during the past three decades, because during that time "China was weak and was not sure where it was going."
But now that China has risen to become a stronger economic power and has demonstrated more confidence on the world political stage in recent years, the US should deal with China with "true equity", he said.
Shambaugh's remarks came on the eve of top-level meetings between the two countries, the second round since the Obama administration took office.
Issues such as the revaluation of the yuan and US high-tech export controls are expected to be discussed.
Yet Shambaugh said the public should not expect too much from the meeting as Beijing has heard enough about the exchange rate issue from Washington and has "zero tolerance" on taking any more pressure from the US about it.
Neither does he think the talks will turn into some sort of G2 in the future because the two countries don't have the same views on many fundamental issues and still lack "strategic trust".
During the past year, the bilateral relationship between the US and China hit some bumps as incidents such as US arms sales to Taiwan and Google's exit from the mainland hurt mutual trust.
But Shambaugh is still optimistic about the future of the two countries.
"You've got the winter, but then comes the spring," he said.