The U.S. and China have been remarkably friendly of late. A slow transition from mutual suspicion and blockage have been replaced by steps towards a genuine strategic relationship. It all started with an announcement by the Chinese at the U.N. Climate Change Summit two months ago, where they stated that they were going to start working on cutting emissions. Now that announcement has become more concrete through an historic climate change deal Wednesday at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit between the U.S. and China.
Cutting down on the carbon is not all that the U.S. and China discussed at the APEC summit: trade was also a topic of discussion which yielded progressive results. The U.S. has agreed to start scaling back on tariffs that have targeted Chinese exports of technological efforts in an effort to stimulate more successful between our two countries. While not as broad reaching as a comprehensive trade deal, this does give hope for larger steps in the future.
This newfound relationship between the U.S. and China is definitely a step in the right direction, especially since it creates the potential for greater cooperation and negotiation between our two countries on other issues, such as strengthening of domestic human rights within China and the resolution of territorial acquisition disputes in the South China Sea. In fact, this new rapprochement between the U.S. and China has significant geopolitical ramifications, since two of the world’s major global actors would be cooperating.
However, the U.S. needs to look at this spirit of cooperation in a cautious manner. It seems that the Chinese may be playing both sides of the field. For instance, while China has been seeking our goodwill on the surface with trade deals and climate change cooperation, state-sponsored cyber-attacks against the U.S. have increased.
The most recent examples of this were suspected attacks on the U.S. Postal Service, and confirmed attacks against National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the National Weather Service. These attacks are troubling because they hit at the highest levels of the U.S. government, and could be a prelude to higher level attacks. On top of this, China is also playing both sides of the global political spectrum. China just agreed to a major gas deal with Russia that would help to boost Putin’s administration despite U.S.-led sanctions.
These mixed messages that China is sending to the U.S. mean that we need to ensure that the Chinese are sincere before moving any farther with deals on technology, foreign policy, climate change, or any other important topic. We need to ensure that we are not opening ourselves to attacks by the Chinese from their technological products as we lower tariffs on them. We also need to ensure that the Chinese understand our stance towards Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Until the issues of cyber security and foreign policy have been addressed both in both international legal terms, perhaps through a U.N. resolution, and through the honest exchange of information, a stable relationship of mutual collaboration cannot exist. We can be optimistic about what has already been accomplished. But that optimism needs to be tempered with caution. Let’s hope that we can move forward with the Chinese instead of falling back into a stalemate.
Reach the columnist at jbrunne2@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @MrAmbassador4
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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