U.S.-China set for new tensions as Obama, economic woes test ties: analysts

Obama's administration could take a harder line on trade disputes and human rights than George W. Bush's team, they argued.

“The Chinese know they are heading for a relationship that will sometimes be more difficult and troubled, on issues such as human rights and above all trade,” said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a China expert at Hong Kong's Baptist University.

“As always during a period of crisis, protectionist tendencies will emerge... (The Democrats) will be even more concerned than their predecessors about protecting American jobs. Frictions are to be expected.”

Obama waited until last Friday, his 11th day in office, before telephoning his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, and during it he appeared to refer to the massive U.S. trade deficit with China.

Obama “stressed the need to correct global trade imbalances as well as to stimulate global growth and get credit markets flowing,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said afterwards.

And even before becoming U.S. Treasury chief, Timothy Geithner accused China of currency manipulation, using stronger language than the Bush administration to complain about the tightly managed Chinese currency, the yuan.

U.S. governments have long argued that the Chinese government is keeping the yuan artificially weak to give its exporters an unfair advantage, exacerbating the trade imbalance between the two nations.

However, there is nothing surprising about the current state of bilateral ties, argued Jean Francois Di Meglio, the vice president of Asia Center, a Paris-based think tank.

“We're in a classic situation at the start of a Democratic administration. Those are never the best of times in Sino American ties, but later they improve,” he said.

He said it was as if Washington were telling China, “'you see we have become tougher, and if we could agree on certain issues, it wouldn't be bad'.”

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