Sino-US Relations Enter a New Phase

 

February 03, 2010 (Hamsayeh.Net) - China warned the US President Barack Obama on Tuesday, not to meet Tibet’s Dalai Lama because it could further strain Sino-US relations.

 

The latest warning follows deteriorating relations between the two in past few months beginning with Washington’s open criticism of what it calls the human rights situation in China. But the underlying reason behind the recent Sino-US spats may have more to do with fact that China’s progress poses a grave threat to Western global clout.

 

Obama administration began a new political offensive against China soon after US media giant Google announced plans to withdraw from China, citing lack of Internet freedom and widespread filtering activities in that country. China rejected Google’s claims saying foreign companies everywhere have to follow the rules of the host country.

 

White House followed a new round of offensives against China by announcing a 6 billion euros military deal with Taiwan, an island China considers part of it own territory. Beijing then threatened to freeze military contracts with Washington even though the latter officially recognizes Taiwan to be a part of China.

 

The US government brushed aside China’s warning on Dalai Lama on Tuesday. A White House spokesman said that the US President already told China leaders about the meeting and he plans to go ahead with that.  ‘The Dalai Lama is an internationally respected religious and cultural leader, and the president will meet with him in that capacity.’ Bill Burton told reporters.

 

China holds enormous leverage against the Americans since it could simply try to convert its huge US government treasury bounds holdings into other more valuable commodities. This would in turn cause a devastating crash to the US economy making level with some third-world countries within a short period.