The United States has signaled to China that it welcomes the
rise of a confident, peaceful and prosperous China, the Bush
administration's top envoy to China said on Tuesday.
"A weak and insecure China is not in America's economic or
security interests," Ambassador Alan Holmer said in a speech
delivered to the Center for Strategic and International
Studies.
He spoke highly of the Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED), saying
the U.S. and China are advancing the bilateral economic
relationship by establishing new habits of bilateral cooperation
through the framework.
It "helps us signal to China that we welcome the rise of a
confident, peaceful and prosperous China," he said.
"We have embraced a broad agenda that covers cross-cutting
economic and economically consequential issues" through the
dialogue, he said, adding the approach engages multiple and diverse
government officials in both countries.
"It breaks down classic bureaucratic stove-pipes that hinder
effective communication and impede results," he told the U.S. think
tank.
"And that's what direct engagement does: it keeps the
relationship on an even keel by lessening miscommunication and
dispelling misperceptions so common in the history of the
U.S.-China relationship," he added.
Holmer spoke in advance of the third meeting of the SED, to be
held in Beijing next month. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will
lead a delegation to China for dialogue. The SED was launched by
President Bush and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao in September
2006.
The SED was not just an event that happens at cabinet-level
meetings twice a year, "rather, engagement is continuous, with
progress announced throughout the year," said Holmer.
He noted time after time, U.S. government agencies have been
able to "draft behind" the momentum created by the framework.
Examples include a new air services agreement, collaboration on
energy security and the environment, moving toward more efficient
capital markets, and addressing concerns about tainted food and
product imports.
"We welcome China into key international financial institutions
and are giving China a greater voice in them as well," he said,
adding since the initiation of the SED in September 2006, the Bush
administration has supported China's efforts to join the
Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and the Paris-based
Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
"We also strongly support a greater voting share for China in
the IMF and World Bank," said the U.S. official.
"This new era in U.S.-China economic relations requires new and
dynamic ways of doing business. We are meeting these challenges
through the creation of the political space and the institutional
capacity for long-term stability in our bilateral economic
relations," he added.
He urged China to take actions to promote more flexible prices,
including a much more flexible, market-driven exchange rate.
Holmer, who was named as special envoy to China and the SED in
February, warned that the politics of U.S.-China economic relations
are intensely dynamic and sensitive, in both countries.
"The SED is complex international economic diplomacy. We are
tackling some of the biggest structural challenges in China's
economic future and in U.S.-China relations," he said.
"The economic and geopolitical landscape of the 21st century
will be greatly influenced by the way in which the United States
and China work together. That emerging future requires a distinct
vision and effective mechanisms to achieve it," he told the
Washington-based think tank.
"By establishing new habits of cooperation, the SED has allowed
both the United States and China to begin to write the next chapter
of our strategic economic relationship," said the U.S. senior
official.
Over the past five years, U.S. exports to China have grown
from18 billion to 52 billion U.S. dollars, while U.S. imports from
China have grown from 102 billion to 287 billion dollars, according
to U.S. data.
(Xinhua News Agency November 28, 2007)
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