BEIJING — The rhetoric in advance of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to Washington that starts today sounds like an endless loop of the Communist Party’s favorite buzzwords: Stability. Harmony. Cooperation.
It speaks to the image that Beijing wants to project to Americans — that of a benign giant whose rise will only benefit its neighbors and trading partners. But it’s also a matter of self-interest. Selling that image abroad is key to ensuring that China can keep its economy booming at a time when its growth is alarming large parts of the world.
The White House is answering smiles with smiles: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke made speeches last week on the importance of U.S.-Chinese cooperation. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was doing much the same in Beijing.
“You can’t find another instance where you have all these different Cabinet-level officials giving speeches before a leader arrives in the country,” said Kenneth Lieberthal of the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
If it all seems excessive, it may be overcompensation for a particularly difficult year. It opened with a $6 billion U.S. arms sale to Taiwan that infuriated the Chinese.
The United States and China squabbled over the South China Sea and North Korea.
And when imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October, Beijing tried to bully other countries into boycotting the award ceremony.
Beijing appeared to realize that its behavior was at cross purposes with its long-term strategy, pushing neighbors Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and India closer to the U.S. fold and inspiring some discussion of containment.
“We want America to feel more assured with China’s presence in the world,” said Shen Dingli, an American studies expert at Shanghai’s Fudan University.
In comments published Monday in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, Hu said the nations should “pursue common development through win-win cooperation.”
Since Hu’s last visit to Washington in 2006, China’s gross domestic product has nearly doubled, allowing it to leapfrog past Germany and Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy. Its sustained rapid growth gives it plenty of potential clout.
Shi Yinhong, an international-relations specialist at Beijing’s Renmin University, says he expects a subdued tone from the Chinese delegation in Washington.
“The tone will be modest and prudent,” Shi said. “We want to make clear in a modest tone that that we want to stabilize the relationship and that there is no attempt to challenge U.S. hegemony.”
More cynical analysts say such studied modesty is disingenuous.
