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NEWS › ASIA ANALYSIS: DIPLOMACY
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 04 December, 2013, 3:55amUPDATED : Wednesday, 04 December, 2013, 3:55am
Kristine [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
United States Vice-President seeks to balanceinterests during visit to ChinaAnalysts say US has limited leverage in Beijing, given it opposes the latter's territorial claims
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Joe Biden
US Vice-President Joe Biden is caught between some rocks and a hard placeas he visits Asia this week.
Biden arrives in Beijing today with the difficult task of conveying the concernsof regional allies and defusing tensions over China's newly declared airdefence identification zone, which includes the disputed rocky islets known asthe Diaoyus in China and the Senkakus in Japan.
This is no easy job. Influencing Beijing has become increasingly difficult for theUS, given their fundamentally different views on China's sovereignty issues.Reaffirming US commitment to the region could prompt demands from alliesfor a tougher stance on China, and that could reinforce Beijing's perceptionthat it is being targeted for containment.
"He [Biden] has the tough task of striking a balance between trying to keep therelationship with China on an even keel while also reassuring US allies aboutWashington's planned future engagement in the region, after the cancellationof President [Barack] Obama's trip," said Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, AsiaPacific director at the US Institute of Peace, referring to the US president'sno-show at two regional summits in October.
As the territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo over the islandsescalates, the US diplomatic tightrope is getting tauter. Washington was quickto defy the air defence zone by sending two B-52 bombers to the area threedays after the zone's establishment.
But Washington said on Friday that US civilian aircraft were expected toobserve China's rules in the zone. Although the US said this did not mean itaccepted China's requirements in the zone, it prompted criticism in Japan.
Tokyo, some experts said, expected Washington to be tougher on Beijing.
"Japanese are concerned about the US' total China policy, and if the US'inconsistent message to China might give the wrong impression to theChinese, as Japan's [former] prime minister [Naoto] Kan did," said HirokoMaeda, a research fellow with the Centre for International and StrategicStudies PHP Institute.
Maeda was referring to a clash between a Chinese fishing boat and two
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Japanese coastguard patrol vessels that developed into a diplomatic row in2010 while Kan was prime minister. Japan's initial tough stance was latersoftened due to concerns about Japanese business interests in China. Thisgave China the impression that "Japan is weak", the academic said.
But for Washington, advancing its relationship with Beijing is also important. AWhite House official said last week that Biden was not travelling to Beijing todeliver a diplomatic démarche but to engage in dialogue over a wide range ofshared interests.
"The Japanese of course don't want the US and China to be too close, to becolluding. But what the US is seeking to do is shape China's rise, to influenceChina as it becomes a bigger power," said Bonnie Glaser, a senior adviser forAsia at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
Influencing China, however, has become challenging, Glaser said. The UShas limited leverage, and "it has to be careful how it uses it", Glaser said.
For Beijing, Washington's disagreement on China's territorial claims in theSouth and East China seas remains a major obstacle to bilateral relations,said Tao Wenzhao , a senior researcher with the Institute of American Studiesat the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The divergent views on territorial and sovereignty issues in the two seas,which Beijing has occasionally described as a core interest, have preventedObama from wholly embracing what President Xi Jinping proposed as "a newtype of major power relationship", according to Glaser.
The concept of this "new type" relationship was proposed by Xi in a meetingwith Obama at the Sunnylands summit in the US last year before he becamepresident. One element in this concept is for both sides to respect each other'score interests, something that Obama does not endorse.
"This [associating the two seas as a core interest] suggests they are so vitalthat China would be willing to go to war over them. The US is not willing tocede these issues to China," Glaser said.
What both leaders have agreed on, Glaser said, was the "sort of negativedefinition" on what the bilateral relationship should not be: that the twocountries should avoid conflict and confrontation and try to manage theirdifferences.
"When they try to come up with a more positive definition, of what it should be,that's really where the US and China diverge substantially," Glaser said.
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