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US-China Bilateral Issues Not Unmanageable
Former US Assistant Secretary of State for Asia and Pacific Affairs Stanley Owen Roth said in Singapore that there is "a daunting set of issues" in the US- China relations but these issues are "not necessarily unmanageable. "
Roth, who has completed his term of Assistant Secretary of State for Asia and Pacific Affair in the Clinton Administration, made the point while giving a lunch talk to the Singapore Institute for International Affairs Monday.
Commenting the status quo of the US-China relations, Roth said that relationship between the US and China is "in much better shape than it was a year or two ago" but the relationship is "still not inherently stable."
"There is a complex set of issues confronting the new (US) Administration, any one of which could pose serious challenges to the bilateral relationship and any combination of which could seriously derail it," he said.
He pointed out that the way the (US) Administration manages the issues will have a major influence on Chinese attitudes towards the United States, saying most of China's top leaders value their relationship with the United States.
Touching on the Taiwan issue, he noted that there have been some positive developments including the significant formulation by Vice Premier Qian Qichen to the effect that the PRC and Taiwan are both parts of China.
"I believe the beginning of wisdom is to acknowledge that it's the parties themselves that are going to have to resolve this dispute and that the United States should not seek to throw itself in the middle," he emphasized.
He also said that US-China relations could go in very different directions during the Bush Administration and Southeast Asia is likely to benefit from good US-China relations.
"It is clear that Southeast Asia has a stake in facilitating good U.S.-China relations," Roth concluded.
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