U.S. China Policy: What’s up?

                     National Security Council (Photo: White House Gov.)

                                     by David Parmer

A key element of stage magic is misdirection: while we watch the magician’s right hand, his left hand holds the disappearing coin. Faced with the back-and-forth of US-China relations, one wonders where is the substance and where is the illusion. Are we seeing one, or the other? Or both? On one hand the US and China are wary of one another. The “pivot to Asia” can be interpreted to mean the US plans to check Chinese power. And China’s de facto “no fly zone” in the S. China Sea has raised the tension level with the US and her allies. Pushback from the Chinese side on the Diaoyu/Senkaku issue has further raised tensions and soured relations with Japan, one of the US’s closest post-war allies. OK. So relations are frosty, and there won’t be any invitations for a beer after work-but wait just a minute. In 2014 the Obama administration has sent it’s “A” team to China. Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel went in April, and then Secretary of State John Kerry in August (accompanied, apparently, by everyone in Washington except the ticket taker at the Smithsonian) and in September, National Security Advisor Susan Rice put in her appearance in Beijing to lay the groundwork for President Barak Obama’s visit in November. So what is going on? In the old old old days states sent their representatives to the Middle Kingdom to pay their respects to the Son of Heaven. But surely, nothing like that could be going on now? Could it? So where is the substance and where the illusion? What aren’t we seeing in the US-China relationship? Which hand holds the coin? Log in and give us your opinion.