By Mayank Chhaya, IANS,
Washington : In announcing a $6 billion arms package for Taiwan, the Obama administration has drawn the line beyond which it would not let China push them.
The announcement made last Friday is by far the most provocative position that President Barack Obama has taken in his hitherto soft China policy. Since his first state visit to China last November, which came after he studiedly postponed his meeting with the Dalai Lama, to be followed by a virtual hectoring he received from Beijing during the Copenhagen climate summit, there was a growing feeling that he was too deferential towards the Chinese leadership.
As if to prove that the arms package to Taiwan is not a one-off move, the same day Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s subjected Beijing to some rough treatment on its equivocal approach towards Iran’s nuclear programme. Her Iran comments followed a seemingly less important but equally crucial issue of the stand-off between Beijing and Google which she used to make a rare official statement on a private corporation’s troubles.
“We look to the Chinese government for an explanation. The ability to operate with confidence in cyberspace is critical in a modern society and economy,” she said on Jan 14.
On Saturday she weighed in on the Taiwan sales saying, “such sales contribute to maintaining security and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
It is not an accident that on three unrelated issues the Obama administration has sharpened not just its language but even backed it up with tangible action as evidenced by the arms package to Taiwan. Considering that Taiwan has lately positioned itself for a more conciliatory relationship with China, the US sale is tantamount to subverting the bilateral thaw.
It is anybody’s guess whether the US is now signaling a radical shift in its China policy, but it is certain that it no longer believes in letting its domestic pressures overwhelm the way it deals with the Asian giant. Last year there were clear signs that the deep fractures in the US economy had forced Washington to be particularly careful while dealing with their biggest global creditor. In fact, Clinton had officially requested Beijing to continue to invest in US treasury bonds even as the Chinese leadership publicly expressed scepticism about the soundness of its economy.
One immediate consequence of this new approach will be that President Obama will schedule a meeting with the Dalai Lama fairly soon. The meeting was postponed late last year as Obama embarked on his first visit to China. While no one is officially linking the revival of talks between the Dalai Lama’s special envoys and the Chinese government after 18 months to the new belligerence in Washington, it is conceivable that Beijing had an inkling about the impending arms package for Taiwan and chose to revive the Tibetan dialogue as a possible goodwill gesture.
In any case, the Obama administration has determined that the soft approach from an administration besieged by domestic and global challenges is being interpreted as a sign of weakness by China. The US dependence of China buying its debt notwithstanding, it is equally clear that Beijing cannot afford to upset its huge market share inside this country. It is an equal relationship where the US still remains first among equals.
(Mayank Chhaya is the editor of South Asia Daily in the US. He can be contacted at [email protected])