China welcomes Bush but stays wary
By Willy Lam for CNN
 |  Hu and Bush will meet again later this month at APEC in Chile. |
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| | CHINA ECONOMY | GDP GROWTH
2002: 8.0 percent
2003: 9.1 percent
2004: 7.7 percent (est.)
2005: 7.2 percent (est.)
Source: World Bank, April 2004 |
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HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Beijing has indicated its readiness to work with re-elected U.S. President George W. Bush towards strengthening a "constructive cooperative relationship" with the United States.
However, the leadership under President Hu Jintao continues to harbor deep misgivings about Bush's "unilateralism" and the anti-China "containment policy" allegedly spearheaded by Washington.
In his congratulatory message to Bush, Hu focused on the "significant progress in cooperation" between the two countries, adding that Beijing was willing to "further promote the development of constructive cooperative [bilateral] relations."
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhang Qiyue, however, on Thursday warned the Bush administration to "adequately handle bilateral ties," and especially, "not to send Taiwan any wrong messages."
This was seen as a reference in particular to Washington's continued sale of sophisticated weapons to Taiwan.
By and large, Beijing academics deemed close to the administration have put a positive spin on Bush's re-election.
For example, international affairs professor Jin Canrong noted that China might have a relatively easier time with Bush on the trade and human rights fronts than if Democratic Party challenger John Kerry made it to the White House.
"There will still be trade disputes with the Bush administration, but it's unlikely these disputes will increase," Jin said. "The same goes for human rights."
It is true that the Beijing foreign-policy elite has repeatedly expressed caution about the U.S. President's record of support for Taiwan, including the pledge he once made that Washington would do "whatever it takes" to defend the island.
However, Chinese cadres and academics have in the past week or so put the emphasis on a couple of apparent rhetorical concessions that Bush and other senior U.S. officials have made on the Taiwan issue.
Peking University specialist on U.S. affairs Zhu Feng, for example, indicated there had been "new areas where both sides had come relatively close."
Professor Zhu cited Bush's statement opposing acts by either side of the Taiwan Strait that could upset the status quo, and Secretary of State Colin Powell's recent pronouncement that Taiwan was not an independent state that had full sovereignty.
A Chinese source familiar with the Hu administration's U.S. policy said, however, that a number of his top advisers still had serious suspicions about Bush's "unilateralist" tendencies.
The source said former vice-premier Qian Qichen's article in China Daily last week represented the Communist party's mainstream view on U.S. "neo-imperialism."
In the article, Qian, often referred to as the "godfather" of post-1989 Chinese diplomacy, warned that the Bush administration was "practicing the same catastrophic strategy applied by former empires in history."
The Chinese source added, however, that given the fast-growing Chinese market, President Hu had confidence Beijing could use the "business card" to lobby the American corporate community -- which is close to the Republican Party -- on the need to address Chinese sensitivities about diplomatic and reunification issues.
Diplomatic analysts in Beijing said despite the leadership's worries about Bush's aggressive foreign policy, Beijing could take heart from the fact that Washington needed China's cooperation in its war on terrorism.
The analysts pointed out that in his second term, Bush would still want Chinese cooperation in areas including the nettlesome North Korean nuclear crisis.
In the meantime, Beijing has sent dozens of senior U.S. watchers to America to observe the elections -- and to do an in-depth study on the new administration's possible new policies on security and diplomacy, particularly with reference to Asia and China.
These experts will soon deliver recommendations to President Hu on what to discuss with Bush during their mini-summit on the sidelines of the APEC heads of state meeting to be held in Chile later this month.
