Question 1
As US President Barrack Obama is currently visiting China, how do you see the future relations of both nations and what’s the impact regionally (such as Asia and Asean) and also globally?
Answer 1
A single visit will not set the tone and tenor of US-China relations. For China what is critical at this point in time, is the ability of the US President to resist growing pressures for protectionist policies from the US Congress and powerful lobbies directed primarily at China which enjoys a huge trade surplus with the US. What the US is looking for, on the other hand, is some indication from the Chinese leadership that it will facilitate the appreciation of the yuan so that American goods will become more competitive in the world market.
If these economic challenges are not resolved in the medium term, the uneasiness in US-China relations will continue for some time. It will not however impact adversely upon ASEAN ties with the two nations or vice-versa. Neither will it have disastrous consequences for the world — except that it would thwart the potential for meaningful cooperation between the world’s first and third largest economies in addressing the current global economic crisis.
Question 2
What are the most important areas of cooperation between China and the US that they should work on?
Answer 2
The two nations should work together on some of the deep, underlying flaws in the global economy. The role of the US dollar as the world’s de facto reserve currency is one of those critical challenges that the US in particular should come to grips with. Any honest analysis of the present global economic crisis will reveal that financial volatility caused to a great extent by the role of the US dollar is one of the principal reasons why we are in such a mess. But the US is determined to perpetuate the role of the US dollar since the dollar is one of the main props in the US’s attempt to sustain its global dominance. If President Obama is sincere about curbing US dominance in the larger interest of humanity, he should support the Chinese proposal to evolve a new global financial arrangement that will not be dependent upon the US dollar.
Question 3
What seems to be the challenges that both may face in building their relations?
Answer 3
Underlying some of the uneasiness over financial and economic issues is the juxtaposition between a declining global superpower and an emerging global actor. The US will not accept its decline and the rise of China with equanimity and dignity. It will go all out to ensure that it remains on top by undertaking some cosmetic changes here and there — such as expanding the G8 to the G20— without making any attempt to overcome fundamental challenges to the global economy. These are challenges related to the ever widening chasm between the global haves and the global have-nots; the increasing concentration of wealth in fewer and fewer hands; the inequities in global trade; and the huge hurdles that face most of the nations in the Global South that are keen on developing their own scientific base, apart from, of course, the injustices inherent in the prevailing global financial (dis)order centring around the dollar.
China itself has not shown much of a commitment to certain crucial challenges such as the chasm between the global haves and global have-nots. It has been preoccupied with its own economic interests in the global arena. Nonetheless, it knows that the existing neo-liberal global capitalist system which has allowed certain segments of Chinese society to prosper has its limits, and will, in the ultimate analysis, hinder China’s emergence as the world’s number one economic power.
Question 4
What roles can both do to tackle the current challenges such as global economy down turn and climate change issue as the summit in Copenhagen is approaching?
Answer 4
Since I have dealt with the global economic crisis, I shall devote my remarks to the climate change crisis and Copenhagen. In the run-up to Copenhagen, the elites of the world in general have not shown a readiness to sacrifice short-term interests for the long-term well-being of the human family as a whole. Obama for instance has yet to commit his nation to any meaningful schedule aimed at reducing greenhouse emissions substantially. On paper at least, the Chinese leadership appears to be more focussed on addressing climate change issues— from diversifying sources of energy to the reforestation of parts of the country. But whether these goals will become reality is anyone’s guess.
On hopes that before the Copenhagen meeting, both the US and China and indeed other major polluters will come up with a concrete, viable action plan that will save planet earth and all its inhabitants from destruction!
Professor Chandra Muzaffar,
President,
International Movement for a Just World (JUST).
17 November 2009