China human rights, and other delicate issues overshadow China-US summit

Sep 25, 2015, 08:30 am

print page small font big font

facebook share

tweet share

Chinese President Xi Jinping visits Boeing's Everett factory on Wednesday./ Source from Xinhua News Agency


By Hong Soon-do, Beijing correspondent, AsiaToday - Xi Jinping is set to visit Washington on September 25 for his first official state visit as president of China. Unfortunately, the outlook for China-US summit is murky as it is expected to end without reaching an agreement on several issues.


According to Western sources in Beijing on Thursday, it seems clear that the two countries won't be able to reach an agreement on China's human rights issues. On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Chinese activists and relatives of detained dissidents and expressed the Obama administration's growing concern about human rights in China and said, "President Obama will bring up China's human rights issues during the China-US summit." It's quite possible that Xi and Obama could blush during the summit, which supposed to be cordial.


The situation has gotten even worse as U.S. officials have accused China of conducting cyber attacks against U.S. government agencies and research institutes. While China referred Xi Jinping's U.S. visit as a trust-building exercise, it seems the U.S. is determined to take this opportunity to address hacking issues. In fact, President Obama has hinted at the possibility of economic sanctions against China over the hacking allegations as soon as Xi Jinping's U.S. visit ends.


Thing are not much different with China's "new model of great power relations" slogan, claiming that China and the U.S. are on the equal terms. Both sides will decidedly find the gap between their perception of this matter during the summit. Perhaps, Obama could avoid to mention it and jump to another topic.


In addition, the two top leaders will inevitably have totally different opinions about issues involving South China Sea, China-Japan issue, US 'pivot to Asia' strategy. Moreover, both sides will likely to have different viewpoints on China's 'New Silk Road' project as well as China's setting up of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).


Of course, Xi and Obama are expected to reach agreement to certain level on some issues, which involve North Korea's nuclear threats, climate changes, and economic cooperation. However, it's clear that there will be such a huge gap of viewpoints on key issues between the two countries.


#China human rights #China-US summit #Xi Jinping #Obama #US visit 
Copyright by Asiatoday