More communication brings understanding

For people concerned that the broad China-US relationship has been hijacked recently by an excessive focus on the South China Sea and cyber security, two events in Washington this week offered welcome relief.

In a talk on Asia-Pacific economic integration at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Tuesday, Zhang Jianping, who leads a National Development and Reform Commission think tank, said China is pleased to see the 12 members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement reach consensus. He described the TPP as one of possible passages to the Free Trade Area of Asia Pacific, which China promoted at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing last November.

Zhang was straightforward in saying that countries such as China and Indonesia may not be ready for the TPP, whose membership requirements are well beyond their development stages. There was no talk about a US conspiracy theory to cut China out of the Asia supply chain as argued by Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel laureate in economics, and many Chinese experts.