Daily Lessons from Life 14 February 2012 - Visiting China VP urges US to "promote trust"

"Visiting China VP urges US to "promote trust" - AFP 14 February 2012

WASHINGTON: Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping said Washington should adopt "concrete measures to promote mutual trust" at the start of a visit to the United States.

Xi, widely expected to become China's next leader, will later Tuesday meet US President Barack Obama in a key early test for Washington's relations with the man on course to lead the Asian power for the next decade.

"We hope the US side could view China in an objective and rational way, and adopt concrete measures to promote mutual trust, especially to properly and discreetly handle the issues concerning the core interests of China," he said Monday, in remarks carried by the official Xinhua news agency.

"We should deal with friction and differences in bilateral economic and trade cooperation in the spirit of seeking mutual benefits and win-win results through a positive and constructive way," he said.

Xi also expressed hope that US election-year politics would not have a "regrettable impact" on ties between the world's two largest economies.

China has watched uneasily as the Obama administration steps up military ties with its neighbors including the Philippines and Vietnam, which have turned to the United States amid heated territorial disputes with Beijing.

Human rights groups say that China has carried out a sweeping clampdown on dissent since last year, likely in fear of the influence of revolts that have overthrown authoritarian leaders in the Arab world."

The two countries have totally different political system though the Chinese has in recent years devoted itself to being a faithful, and sometimes innovative, student of capitalism.

Lessons for me are:

1. the quest for making money will make the Americans happy but the desire to have the Chinese embrace the democratic election manner, which some said USA's system is not really democratic, will greatly disappoint the Americans. It is an unrealistic dream!;

2. the jostling for power of influence in the Asia Pacific Africa region will mean both countries facing fractious and tense situations more and more. A lot of dancing around will be done. Military confrontation will not be eminent as long as the US does not push the Chinese to a loss of face situation;

3. will the Presidential Election Year sour the US and China relationship. Maybe if the race is too close and someone needs to one-up the other in the Presidential race. Otherwise, they are aOK as long as the Chinese knows that any 'strong words' are just political shadow dancing. If the Chinese took it too seriously, that will be sad. It will show cultural insensitive and immature. Not ready for the world political stage. Period.

May VP Xi goes on to be the next President/CCP Secretary General/Chairman of the CMC soon and focus on getting China out of a polarization of the poor and rich. This will be the one that topple the CCP government and NOT US/China relationship. But then again, when that point is near, it is a good distraction to have a bad relationship with the US and threat of war emerges.