Dialogue with Patrick deGategno
- Source: Global Times
- [11:18 November 13 2009]
- Comments
Patrick deGategno, Associate Director, Asia Programs, The Atlantic Council of the United States
Global Times: Barack Obama is the first US president to visit China in the first year of his term. High-level officials from both sides have interacted frequently in this year. Do you think it means that the US’ policy on China has changed?
DeGategno: No, overall President Obama has not fundamentally changed the American strategic policy of engaging China and building closer relations with China. What has changed is Obama also seeks to augment Bush's strategy in significant ways. First, Obama deliberately avoided the election cycle paradigm of US-China relations into which Bush fell twice - that is, make US-China affairs a partisan issue for debate, start off the presidency with tense relations, and later necessarily adjust and reduce tension. China was not a subject for debate at all for Obama during the election. Second, Bush's policy focused on shaping China's behavior through policy formulations like expecting China to become a "responsible stakeholder," meaning that China is a stakeholder in the existing world order and should act according to that order's norms. China has never had a problem with the idea of being a global stakeholder, but who defines the responsibilities of such stakeholders? China expects that as its wealth and power increases it will have the chance to articulate those responsibilities. According to US officials, Obama will not present China with a mold into which it must try to fit itself. Rather, Obama wants to define a new paradigm with China. Third, Bush's defense policy regarding China focused on hedging for the possibility of war with China in case the two sides antagonize each other in the future. Thus, Bush's policy, though more successful than past presidents, remained fundamentally ambivalent towards China. Obama instead seeks a framework for relations in which both states can respond to global challenges coordinately without impeding each other's national interests. Obama seeks to increase cooperation with China and other global partners in four areas: response to the global financial crisis, global non-proliferation, climate change, and international security threats like piracy, terrorism, drug smuggling, and human trafficking.
Global Times: Is it Obama’s expedient measures due to the financial crisis?
DeGategno: No, Obama's China policy does not reflect "expedient measures due to the financial crisis." If you stop to consider the careers of the people in the Obama administration responsible for strategizing with the president and executing America's policies in its relations with China, it becomes abundantly clear that the president's strategy in US-China relations is focused on the goal of building a closer strategic partnership no matter what. In other words, Obama's policy would likely be the same even if the financial crisis had not happened. It is true that the financial crisis has highlighted the importance of US-China relations in the global economy. But Obama and his top advisors have been strategizing and considering their policies regarding US relations with China for quite some time and very carefully. The president himself may be no American expert on China, but his senior advisors and numerous of his cabinet officials have worked on issues related to US-China relations for decades. Obama has in his employ, I think, the best possible people working on US-China relations. Many of these people have established careers as advocates for stronger, more pragmatic, and more cooperative relations with China. These advisors and officials work to strategize and execute US policy regarding US-China relations in an effort devoted to building mutual trust and finding ways for the two partners to cooperate realistically and constructively.
