AP analysis: U.S, China moving closer to equals

U.S. President Barack Obama's first visit to China underscored a shifting balance of power: two world giant countries are now moving closer to being equals on the world stage, said an news analysis by the Associated Press authored by Charles Hutzler and Jennifer Loven. Excerpts follow:

In this week's choreographed show of U.S.-Chinese good will, Obama's pledge to treat China as a trusted global partner won a return promise of shared effort on world troubles.

Standing together in the Great Hall of the People after a morning of talks, Obama and President Hu Jintao talked expansively of common burdens and joint efforts on global warming, nuclear disarmament, the anemic economy and other big issues. They dealt coolly with differences over human rights and trade, leaving them out of public view or reserved for coded language.

Obama went into the meetings with a weaker hand than most past presidents. The battering that economic recession and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have given U.S. prestige is felt nowhere more keenly than in a China that is busily growing and accruing global clout.
"The U.S. has a lot to ask from China," said Xue Chen, a researcher on strategic affairs at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies.

Obama's outreach continued the type of pragmatic bridge-building he has used in Europe and the Middle East in hopes of earning goodwill that will produce payoffs in the future..

In China, though, the challenge is of a different magnitude. The Chinese government is America's biggest foreign creditor, with $800 billion of federal U.S. debt that gives it extraordinary power in the relationship. Its military advancement is rubbing up against America's influence in Asia. And Beijing feels the global recession, sparked by U.S. financial industry excesses in the past few years, vindicates China's leadership, though some in the West allege authoritarian, is delivering much more to the people. After all, China is booming and rising fast.

For Obama, going back home from a weeklong Asia trip with little more than hopes that he's laying groundwork for better cooperation could sour, fast, on Americans. He was elected in part because of his promises to restore the battered U.S. image abroad. But if the cost of that is too much listening and too little getting, the public could well grow impatient.

One sign, albeit small, that people are growing weary with Obama's pragmatic humility overseas: A mini-furor erupted in the U.S. when he bowed to greet the emperor of Japan in Tokyo Saturday. Conservative commentators are calling it another instance of groveling before a foreign leader.

The effect could stretch beyond foreign affairs. Many Americans still think of the U.S. as an unassailable superpower and don't want presidents who make them think otherwise. Problems in this area could make it more difficult to forge ahead with already divisive health care reforms, make bold choices on a new strategy for the drawn-out war in Afghanistan, or get re-elected.

The joint statement that Obama and Hu issued was the broadest of its kind in 30 years of formal relations. It contained expressions of cooperation in relations between their two often-mistrustful militaries, on a human rights dialogue, on space exploration and on shoring up Afghanistan and Pakistan.

President Hu said each country should respect the other's "core interests" — code for Washington to end arms sales for Taiwan and support for the Dalai Lama, a much disliked or hated figure in China.

Said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs later: "I did not expect, and I can speak authoritatively for the president on this, that we thought the waters would part and that everything would change over the course of our almost two-and-a-half-day trip to China."

Associated Press – People's Daily Online