Opinion | Courage then is key to charting Sino-US ties now
By Augustus K. Yeung
The day before Lunar New Year's Eve is the last chance for house-cleaning and making "New Year's resolutions". Following this tradition, I was handsomely rewarded as I came across an insightful article about – the characteristics of outstanding U.S. presidents.
Looking back, President Joe Biden could have been more assertive as a world leader instead of merely kowtowing to the anti-China sentiments and moral dictates of Donald J. Trump, his arch-rival. The balloon saga was an example of short-selling, at the expense of US-China relations, perfectly matching the witch-hunt scenario of Trump's "Wuhan virus" conspiracy theory.
So was Biden's idea of having Nancy Pelosi, then House Speaker to pay a politically motivated visit to Taiwan, triggering an unprecedented response of fire and fury from the PLA.
To go far enough, perhaps we should start with the primordial maiden meeting in Alaska – when the two high-level teams met for the first time; unexpectedly, it started and ended in a shouting match. The Chinese team was totally disappointed, wondering how to get along with the wayward Americans in the days to come.
Read the following blissful article, and you will better understand the difficulty of being the president of the United States and share the leaders' (Carter's and Deng's) vision, mission and admire their "political courage" that were being extolled then and now.
It was not an easy decision for Carter to normalize relations. President Richard Nixon and his secretary of state Henry Kissinger earlier had opened the door, but the progress was put on hold first by Nixon's Watergate scandal, then by President Gerald Ford's political caution – that it was too risky, saying he would delay it to his second term.
Ford's second term never came, said David Lampton, professor emeritus and former director of China studies at John Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies – at a forum commemorating the 45thanniversary of the normalization at the Carter Center in Atlanta recently.
The open-minded audience was reminded that it was a much more difficult time politically – when China and the US were trying to normalize relations.
Herbert Hansell, who was closely involved in agreements establishing diplomatic relations with China, was unexpectedly berated by senators from both parties for "selling out American interest", said Stephen Orlins, chairman of the National Committee on US-China Relations.
Orlins, who was at the State Department at that time and present at that Senate hearing, said 60 percent of Congress opposed the move.
In 1978, the world was told that China and the US would normalize relations.
Susan Thornton, a former US diplomat and senior fellow at Yale Law School's Paul Tsai China Center, said: "The bravery that was displayed, the political courage on the part of both Chinese and American leaders at the time really deserves our incredible esteem."
What changed with the normalization?
"The last four decades have seen the growth of China. It's the fastest and most extensive economic growth in human history – by orders of magnitude," said Jonathan Alter, who has published numerous books about various US presidents including Carter.
Hundreds of thousands of US and Chinese soldiers had died in battlefields – when Carter went to Asia, Orlins said.
"Virtually no American and Chinese soldiers have died on (Northeast) Asian battlefield since the establishment of diplomatic ties – and Asia has been peaceful and prosperous for almost a century," he said.
The core principles that Carter had for normalizing relations could help – to manage problems in today's bilateral ties, the experts said.
Thornton said when Carter sent Secretary of State Cyrus Vance to Beijing in August 1977 to negotiate the agreements, he gave him an instruction letter on his vision of how the normalization would unfold, setting the tone for the relations.
"Carter hoped that Vance's visit would restore the momentum to the normalization process, increase the willingness of both sides to cooperate where they have common interests, and expand our economic and cultural relations," Thornton said.
Future evolution
Both Carter and Deng had a high degree of ability – to entertain the lack of clarity, Lampton said. "Both were willing to leave important areas to future evolution, interpretation and adaptation", such as what they meant by peaceful resolution and official and unofficial relations, he said.
"The important thing is we haven't had any wars with China. That's the fact," Lampton said.
Lampton recounted that when he went to China in 1979 with the US Secretary of Health and Education to sign the education and health agreement, a CIA agent came along on the trip on a converted basis.
"At the farewell banquet, minister of health Qian Xinzhong stood up and said to the agent: 'We're very glad that you came to China. We hope you learned everything you'd wanted to learn," and the crowd burst into laughter and applause. So, even the CIA can contribute to trust –if you put it in the right framework," Lampton said.
The expert called for courage in the current political climate to keep relations moving forward, "If we were more creative and braver, we would find many more areas of common interests to cooperate," Thornton said. "I never lose sight of the bravery – not only of Carter and Deng but earlier of Nixon, Kissinger, Chairman Mao (Zedong) and Premier Zhou (Enlai) – and how they fought the political currents to do the right thing." (Source: China Daily)
In the context of leadership in contemporary America, at the time when President Biden now warns of a 'nightmare' future for the country – if Trump should win again, the 45thanniversary meeting in the Carter Center becomes more significant, timely and wanting.
Looking back at the memorable history of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and China 45 years ago, American experts said the courage displayed at the time – by both U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping should be "emulated today" – to chart the relationship's future path.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
To contact the writer, please direct email: AugustusKYeung@ymail.com
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