When great powers meet
0 
The two leaders would do well not to get bogged down in discussing the long list of complex and contentious issues in the relationship. They need to focus on three broad categories of issues: global, regional, and bilateral - and choose one or two key issues in each category to focus on.
At the global level, this should be climate change and global economic recovery. At the regional level in Asia, it should be the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Iran's nuclear program - and trying to integrate both into their regions following resolution of the nuclear issues of their respective nuclear programs. Bilaterally, the focus should be on liberalizing each country's investment climate for the other's companies, and narrowing China's trade surplus with the United States.
This is not to say that other issues - such as China's desire for the relaxation of US high-tech export controls or the US' concerns about human rights in China - are not important. They are. But priorities should be established for the summit dialogue.
The two presidents would also do well to establish some more institutionalized mechanisms to forge cooperation on a year-round basis. At present, the relationship is too episodic. It revolves around high-level meetings which occur a few times per year - while what is needed is the establishment of a series of intergovernmental working groups that work on a variety of issues together on a 365-day basis. China has this in its relationships with Russia and the European Union, and it would help the US-China relationship to bureaucratically move in this direction.
Despite the importance of these priority areas for discussion, the two presidents should elevate their discussion to recognize that they are the two most important leaders of the two most important countries with the two most important responsibilities in the world today. The US-China relationship is now a global relationship and needs to be addressed primarily on this level. The two presidents need to rise above the nitty-gritty details of contentious policy disputes, and grasp the "Big Picture" - the big strategic picture - and commit their governments to working together to address the major challenges to the planet and mankind today. The US and China are the two most important countries in the world - the world's No 1 and 2 economies, the two leading emitters of greenhouse gases, have two of the world's largest military budgets, and so on.
It is therefore incumbent on Presidents Hu and Obama to be global statesmen, and commit their countries and governments to common cause - where possible - to jointly addressing the many pressing issues on the global governance agenda today. The two countries cannot contribute to the betterment of the human condition and the world by pursuing their own narrow national interest. This is the opportunity that the summit in Washington really offers. The world waits to see what the outcome will be.
The author is a professor of international affairs and director of the China Policy Program at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Go to Forum >>0 Comments