DAILY EXCEPTION

Over the first year of his Administration, President Obama has done what he can to please a rising China. He has afforded it the greatest respect. He has refused to meet with the Dalai Lama. He has been silent as China has ratcheted up border tensions with India. He has even kept quiet over China’s blatant currency manipulation. But could reality be sinking in in Washington? China and America are indeed partners when it comes to economics. But on strategic terms, they are rivals. Recognizing this, the US has made the correct decision to provide defensive weapons to our ally, Taiwan, at a time when the Chinese military is pointing ever more missiles at it. We should not be cowed down by threats from Beijing of downgraded relations. Secretary Clinton has also had stern words with China on both sanctions against Iran and now on the cyberattacks on Google. It seems to me that the idealism of the first Obama year is giving way to the fact that this is a very fraught and uneasy relationship. China is not quite an enemy. But nor is it a friend. Managing China’s rise will be America’s toughest long term policy challenge in the coming century. The best way to do this is not to retreat into Fortress America and bemoan our shortcomings. Rather it is to play to our manifold strenghts. China still needs the US far more than the other way round. Furthermore, America, and its democracy has withstood the test of time. History will be the judge of whether China’s “communist” (state capitalist) system will do the same.