Washington, D.C. — Chinese President Hu Jintao arrives in Washington for a state visit next week, with hopes high in both capitals that his trip may serve to smooth out the edges of a U.S.-China relationship that has frayed over the past year. Clashes over security, the global economy, and differing political and government values challenge the relationship today. China is fast becoming the touchstone against which everything wrong with the U.S. economy and competitiveness is measured, creating great expectations for the summit. In a press call today, the Center for American Progress released two new reports that shed light on U.S.-China relations in the fields of foreign, economic, and energy policy.
Nina Hachigian’s report entitled “Conduct Befitting a Great Power: Responsibility and Sovereignty in U.S.-China Relations” discusses the challenges over security, the global economy, and differing political values that face the U.S.-China relationship. Additionally, it argues that the Obama administration should take some of the following steps to help build a 21st century relationship of global responsibility:
- Facilitating job-creating Chinese direct investment in the United States
- Maintaining U.S. leverage in Asia by continuing to deepen our ties with partners and allies in the region
- Acting like a 21st century superpower by engaging with and strengthening the international architecture of rules, norms, and institutions
- Not losing the current consensus in the U.S. Congress, media, and public that favors a pragmatic U.S.-China policy
CAP’s second report released in today’s press call, “Rising to the Challenge: A Progressive U.S. Approach to China’s Innovation and Competitiveness Policies,” examines China’s innovation assets and liabilities as the country races to build a globally competitive innovation-led economy, and then considers how the United States should react to these challenges. Recommendations to U.S. policymakers on steps on how our government could take to ensure our nation rises to meet the challenges posed by China are included. The paper highlights progressive proposals that would boost our national competitiveness and jobs growth in the short run and ensure our once-dominant position in science and technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, and job creation is not eclipsed by China in the 21st century. On the eve of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to Washington, these are proposals that Congress and the Obama administration dearly need to take to heart:
- Modernizing our basic infrastructure to allow businesses to more effectively collaborate and compete in domestic and international markets
- Investing more in science and math education and workforce development to ensure we have workers able to participate in the technology-driven economy of the present and future
- Crafting finance policies to make more public and private capital available to innovators and bolster our culture of entrepreneurship by rewarding risk-taking and competitiveness
- Promoting international trade policies that ensure access to foreign markets, and the free flow of goods, services, knowledge, and capital across borders
- Honing our research and development policies so that we invest not just in basic research but also the full innovation lifecycle from invention, to development, to production and commercialization
To listen to today’s press call previewing Hu’s state visit, click here.
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