U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden, right, watches as China's President Hu Jintao waves upon his arrival at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington on TuesdayJASON REED/Reuters
Chinese President Hu Jintao and U.S. President Barack Obama are poised to begin a new phase in the relationship between the world's two biggest economies that will reset disputes about currency policy and market access.
In recent years, experts have described the U.S. posture toward China as bullying and patronizing, while China's response was often characterized as obstinate.
With Mr. Hu in Washington on Wednesday on his first formal state visit, analysts detect a new diplomatic tone. For perhaps the first time, the United States is clearly treating China as a fellow global power, rather than an irritant or an obstacle. Mr. Hu is responding positively, saying in response to questions from The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post that the two countries should "abandon the zero-sum Cold War mentality" and "expand our converging interests."
Kind words are no guarantor of policy changes. Still, some close observers of China's government say the Obama administration's attempt to replace rancour with civility offers a better chance for resolving disagreements on issues such as the currency and Chinese pirating of U.S. technology. At worst, the U.S. willingness to change its approach to China will stop the economic relationship from sliding off the rails - a real danger because of diplomatic spats related to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and China's reluctance to take a harder line on North Korea.
"Music to my ears," Wendy Dobson, co-director to the Institute for International Business at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and author of Gravity Shift: How Asia's Economic Powerhouses Will Shape the 21st Century, said of speeches last week by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The messages of both senior cabinet members were "balanced and thoughtful," replacing the "mutual demonization that had set in in recent months," said Prof. Dobson, a former associate deputy minister at the Canadian Finance Department and a frequent visitor to China.
In a significant shift, Mr. Geithner openly discussed the Treasury's efforts to get China to loosen controls on its currency in terms of a negotiation. He told an audience in Washington that the Obama administration would consider Chinese requests for greater investment opportunities in return for movement on the currency and other U.S. concerns.
Mr. Geithner pointedly refused to blame Chinese policies for U.S. economic woes, saying that U.S. exports to China are growing twice as quickly as they are to any other area, and that within a decade the country will be the biggest U.S. export market. Mr. Geithner reiterated that he thinks the yuan is undervalued, but argued that China's faster inflation should be considered in complaints about how Chinese policy is putting U.S. companies at a disadvantage. Because costs are rising for Chinese companies, they are losing their competitive edge, he noted.
"The U.S. is moving to a more balance and nuanced position," said Yukon Huang, a Washington-based senior associate in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Asia Program and a former China director at the World Bank. "Both sides have issues they want to raise, but both will try to do so in a context that doesn't cause more trouble."
Mr. Hu arrived in Washington late Tuesday afternoon and was to meet privately with Mr. Obama. Talks are to continue Wednesday, followed by an official state dinner. Mr. Hu, who is travelling with Chinese executives, also is scheduled to visit Chicago, where companies from the U.S. and China are set to conclude dozens of business agreements.