Sino-US ties in focus as Obama wins 2nd term

By Chen Weihua in Washington (China Daily) Updated: 2013-01-22 04:13

China is one of the fastest-growing markets for US exports and the biggest market for US farm products. Even Apple CEO Tim Cook predicted a week ago that China will replace the US as the company's largest market.

Meanwhile, the number of Chinese students at US colleges and universities has reached a record high of 194,000, a 23 percent increase from a year ago, while the US has embarked on a 100,000-strong initiative to send US students to study in China.

The countries have become so interdependent that Larry Summers, the former treasury secretary and economic adviser to Obama, said he could picture a 21st century in which the US and China prosper and he could picture a 21st century in which the US and China do not prosper, but he could not picture a 21st century in which one of the two prospered and the other did not.

Obama was the first US president to visit China during his first year in office, in 2009, and President Hu Jintao and Vice-President Xi Jinping both visited the US in the last two years.

China and the US have also worked together over the last year on a host of global issues.

"I see the relationship as in pretty good shape. I don't see a downward spiral or the rising confrontation that I read about frequently in the media and in commentaries, both in the United States and in China," Bader told a conference in Beijing two months ago.

Bader said that while he may be a person who sees the glass as half full, he is not unaware of public concerns, including tension arising from maritime disputes.

While Washington denies that the US pivot, or rebalancing, to Asia is aimed at containing China, many Chinese people remain deeply skeptical.

Zha Daojiong, a professor of international relations at Peking University, believes the US is biased in favor of Japan concerning the Diaoyu Islands.

That sentiment is also strong among many Chinese citizens especially after US leaders stressed that the islands in the East China Sea were covered by the US-Japan security and defense treaty.

The rapid growth of US arms sales in Asia and its aggressive push for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade bloc that excludes China, fuels concerns over the US regional role.

The pivot to Asia has also sparked heated debate within the US.