Top diplomats to gauge broader Sino-US ties
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2005-07-19 12:36

The United States will open a new diplomatic front with China in a two-day visit headed by senior State Department officials next month in Beijing, which will seek a broad gauge of all-round relations between the two giants, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick speaks at a press conference Cairo July 13, 2005. He will lead a delegation to visit China next month. [AP]

The United States delegation, to be led by Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick, will hold dialogues with his Chinese counterpart, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Dai Bingguo. The new talks will focus on building a closer tie with the uprising China in a larger framework instead of previously just focusing on specific economic, political and security issues, the report said.

The move has been seen by the newspaper as Washington's recognition of China's growing importance.

"We want to try to get people to look across issues and see their interrelations - whether its foreign and security policy or economic, trade, finance or energy," Zoellick was quoted as telling the Los Angeles Times.

Senior State Department officials also recognized Sino-U.S. tie as one of the Washington's most challenging international relationships. They said they hoped the new dialogue would develop into a deeper level of engagement with more conversation than negotiation to build trust between the two governments, and offer a chance to study the broader implications of specific issues.

The new conversation, obviously initiated by the United States, implied that Washington has realized the need for a better relationship with China, which has grown rapidly especially in the past four years, after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack and the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

However, the picture is not that cozy in the Congress, the newspaper said. China's expanding economic and military power, and growing trade surplus with the U.S has caused an anti-China sentiment there. Some U.S. lawmakers think that instead of building a closer tie, the U.S. should start to confront China.

"The general feeling is we're headed into a rough patch," said Nancy Bernkopf Tucker, a China scholar at Georgetown University.

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