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The United States and China need and mistrust each other
WASHINGTON, September 15, 2005 � The United States and China must get beyond mistrust of one another to manage future relations effectively and peacefully, according to David M. Lampton, director of China Studies at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
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| David M. Lampton |
Speaking at a seminar to International Reporting Project Fellows, Lampton focused on China's growing economic power and how it is transforming its relations with the United States and other countries across the globe. China's high national savings rate - 31 to 47 percent of its gross national product compared to zero savings in the United States - is helping the country gain tremendous international economic muscle. As the second-largest foreign holder of U.S. debt and a manufacturing and export juggernaut of goods ranging from textiles to telecommunications, China has become essential to global economic growth, Lampton said.
But that power also creates suspicion, Lampton noted. The recent Chinese effort to take over Unocal, a U.S. oil company, provoked a backlash in the U.S. Congress that illustrates the quandary China faces in the international system: it is sought as a market because of its growing wealth but feared for the same reason.
Lampton said China's rising economic and political power will ultimately force the United States to "engage in fundamental economic reform and social restructuring," as well as reevaluate its relationship with Taiwan and other countries.
But even as trade increases and relations become more "co-dependent," with China relying on U.S. markets for its growth and the United States dependent on China's financing of its debt, Lampton said the core relationship between the two countries remains "based on mutual strategic mistrust."
"We don't know how they're going to manage their power," Lampton said, "but the Chinese think we're trying to slow them down." Getting beyond that mistrust is key to navigating tensions between the two countries, he said. "We need them, they need us" to ensure economic growth in either country, Lampton said. "That's the essence."
Copyright © 2005 International Reporting Project. All Rights Reserved.