China should remove Taiwan 'stick'

Clearly, the China portion of the trip is extremely important since cooperation between Washington and Beijing is increasingly essential to the resolution of major issues, ranging from climate change to Iran's nuclear ambitions, from the global financial crisis to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.

The Obama administration has tried to ensure a favorable environment for the talks in China. The president departed from tradition by not meeting the Dalai Lama when the Tibetan leader was in Washington last month. He has also refrained from announcing an arms sales package for Taiwan.

But it is unclear if such measures will ensure a successful outcome in Beijing, especially in terms of improving military-to-military relations, which reportedly will be an important focus of the discussions.

After all, it will not be possible for the United States to keep pleasing Beijing. For example, after it was disclosed that Obama plans to meet the Dalai Lama after his China trip, the People's Daily ran an online commentary headlined “Meeting with the Dalai Lama should be deterred, not just deferred.”

As for relations between the American and Chinese militaries, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called for lasting dialogue rather than “on again, off again” talks while welcoming Xu Caihou, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission.

The reason for the intermittent nature of the relationship is that every time the United States announces a big arms sales package for Taiwan, China suspends the military dialogue. This happened last October when the Bush administration announced a US$6.5 billion package to Taiwan and it has taken a year for the two sides to get back to where they are today.

In a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, Xu called on the United States to abide by agreements it has signed with China, citing a 1982 accord in which the U.S. said that it “intends to reduce gradually its arms sales to Taiwan, leading over a period of time to a final resolution.”

For over 30 years, the United States has tried to get China to promise not to use force against Taiwan while China has tried to get the U.S. to stop selling arms to the island. So far, neither side has convinced the other.

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