China

Well, that was a wasted trip, said The New York Times in an editorial. It's been nine years since a president of China visited the White House. Yet when Hu Jintao and George W. Bush got together last week, all they managed to do was 'œoffer up a series of smiling photo ops.' These two world leaders could have confronted pressing matters such as China's burgeoning pollution problem, our huge trade imbalance, and North Korea's nuclear ambitions. Instead, Washington insisted on 'œdowngrading the protocol, lowering the expectations, and erasing the substance for Hu's visit.' The only exciting moment, said Peter Baker and Glenn Kessler in The Washington Post, came when someone from the persecuted Falun Gong religious sect started screaming, 'œPresident Hu! Your days are numbered! President Bush! Stop him from killing!'

At least someone actually engaged Hu, said Niall Ferguson in the Los Angeles Times. The Bush administration, by contrast, can't decide whether to treat China as a valued economic partner or a dangerous adversary. They'd better figure out a policy soon. With an economy that's growing as much as three times faster than ours, and an appetite for fossil fuels that now rivals our own, China needs to be reckoned with. The threat isn't purely economic, said Dan Blumenthal in The Weekly Standard. For the last decade, the Chinese have been engaged in double-digit military spending. Beijing is also using 'œits new international prominence to provide diplomatic succor to such menaces as Iran, Venezuela, and Sudan.' Fortunately, we still have clout. 'œWithout the American market, the Chinese economy would come close to collapse.' Instead of holding 'œsummits about nothing,' the U.S. should use this leverage to contain China while prodding it to respect the rights of its own citizens and embrace democracy.

In reality, the Chinese pose no real threat to American dominance, said Harvard professor Joseph Nye Jr. in The Boston Globe. Except for Taiwan, China has no territorial ambitions. Despite its economic growth, China's per capita income is still only $1,700, or one twenty-fifth that of the U.S. It badly lags in science, too. The biggest challenge China faces is not the U.S. but its own instability, exacerbated by its political repression, 'œenormous inequality, and rampant corruption.' That's why it's best if the U.S. maintains an arm's-length relationship with this would-be superpower—hoping to coax the Chinese forward, but not being wedded to the outcome. When Ronald Reagan dealt with the Soviets, his motto was, 'œTrust, but verify.' For Bush, the strategy should be, 'œEmbrace, but hedge.'

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