China's Xi Jinping meets with Obama: Will it be a 'Nixon goes to China' moment?
笔谤别蝉颈诲别苍迟听翱产补尘补听补苍诲 China鈥檚 President聽Xi Jinping聽will meet for at least six hours聽this weekend in a rare, informal t锚te-a-t锚te that some say could reshape the relationship between the two world powers.
Not since 1972, when Nixon went to China, have leaders from China and the US sat down for more than a carefully scripted visit lasting more than an hour or so. And Asia-watchers are hoping this unscripted, two-day Sino-US summit ( allowing for an extended six-hour meeting) will have equally dramatic consequences.
鈥淎 second great breakthrough in the relationship has become a Holy Grail,鈥� Orville Schell, head of the Asia Society鈥檚 Center for US-China Relations in New York, told the Monitor''s Beijing bureau chief, 鈥淥f course it鈥檚 hard to do, but that鈥檚 their aspiration.鈥�
The Monitor's Peter Ford points out that the second meeting for the two leaders (when Xi was still China's vice president he met with Obama briefly) comes at key time for the US and China:
Strategic trust between the world鈥檚 top two economies is at a dangerously low level, worn away recently in a number of ways: Washington has accused Beijing of massive commercial cyberespionage; China is suspicious that President Obama鈥檚 military and diplomatic 鈥減ivot to Asia鈥� is a bid to contain the Asian giant鈥檚 rise; China has pressed territorial claims and clashed with US allies such as Japan and the Philippines.
Still,聽writes the Monitor's Howard LeFranchi in Washington, not everyone is expecting immediate change, particularly if such urgent issues as cybersecurity are not substantially addressed:
Even though the two leaders are expected to discuss everything from military and corporate cybersecurity to聽North Korea, territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and US-China trade, the summit鈥檚 emphasis on building their personal relationship leaves doubters unimpressed.
鈥淚f we actually saw a substantial agreement on countering cyberthreats 鈥� or saw the Chinese throttle back on territorial claims, that would be significant,鈥� says Dean Cheng, a research fellow in Chinese political and security affairs at the聽Heritage Foundation in Washington.
For the rest of the story on聽the "great new power relationship" between China and the US, click here.
