Oh..Oh...! Where is our "Rob, the self proclaimed high caste Indian"? He should be here correcting Mr Jon Huntsman's words and say US-India relationship is even more important, which everybody except Rob know very well India is only important when she can being made used of.

Nice insight Bruce. The U.S. China relationship will be the most important relationship for the 21st century.

It is because Uncle Sam loves China's deep pocket.

I think China will eventually be a very important country after she has completed her transition into a developed country. But as of now, China is still a poor developing nation with 1.34b mouths to feed. As an overpopulated country with few natural resources and farmland, China faces many domestic constraints that will pre-occupy the attention of her leadership and consume resources of the nation. The aggregate size of China's GDP carries weight in the world but when you divide it by 1.3b, you see most Chinese are still living on a small fraction of income compared to Europe or the US. ($3,000 GDP per capita in China vs $48,000 in the US). So it is premature to judge China by the standard of developed nations and ask her to shoulder responsibilities of the developed countries.

Paul hit the mark; that is the truth.

china is growing up,though we have a lot of problems here.But we will take everything under controll.The cold war has ended for years,just stop thinking each other as opponents,we will be friends

Japan had been the second largest economy in the world for quite a long time now, but it was never that important internationally and will never be. During the 1997 Asian financial crisis when Japan was still near the height of its economic power with the world's largest FX reserves, it did nothing to help out its troubled Southeast Asian neighbors. For the most part, Japan is just a self-absorbed, export dependent nation feeding on the US and Asian markets. Meanwhile, its own domestic market, much smaller relative to that of either the US or Chinese markets, is closed to foreigners. Few foreign multinationals can make much money out of Japan. Though a part of Asia, Japan is extremely xenophobic and racist towards all non-white foreigners including fellow Asians. The US-Japan is important only when the US intends to use Japan as a pawn to contain China. If one is to believe Obama's words that the US no longer intends to contain China, then there is very little to sustain a close US-Japan relationship.

Whatever, China will always be Japan's you know what. Japan is lights years ahead fo China.

ALL,

If one is an history observer of the last 2-3 millennium China was at the fore front of that periods. Every Asian nation knows that & they recognize China's rise. Personally I would not bet against her being the primier power in all of Asia if not the world. Just a reminder to Marco Polo & his entourage spent over 17 yrs in China during their 22 yrs absence fro Venice.

It is no doubt that chinese income is far from being comparable to the income standard in US and Europe, and it will take a long way to get there.

However, from sheer GDP point of view, Huntsman is right in saying. From my personl experience based on my last visit to mainland a couple weeks ago, he didn't exaggerated. The achievements made there are shocking to me. Many people are getting better off in a pace which sounded fishy to me. They are not just elites, but many average joe. For example, there are 2 million private cars in Chengdu, which is not metropolitan city yet, and many people here may not hear of its name before.

Another point implicitly made by Huntsman, is that many westerners still maintain an old impression of mainland China, without recognizing that it is different from many angles, not only economy. As it is charging forward and becoming more influential in the world, westerners should not be complacent but be humble to study how to cooperate with it and join hands to make the world better, and particularly learn its culture and history.

Communication is not just one-way, especially your competitors are getting stronger and stronger

To Paul: China's gdp right mow is about 4.8 trillion dollars. Even if per capita income in nominal dollar terms is only about 3800 dollars, however in ppp terms, it is around 6500 dollars that makes China a low-end middle income country. PPP is a better method of measuring national wealth. The main thing is nobody goes hungry in China anymore. On the population density basis, Germany, Britain, France are much more overpopulated than China. It is true that China only has 7% the farmland of the world but achieved more than 95% of grain self- sufficiency. It is a remarkable feat, considering that China has 20% of world's population. By 2050, China will be the most important country in the world. It's economy will be more than 4 times bigger than that of America.

Yes, we notice that the title says "China-U.S." not "U.S.-China". I'm glad Americans are embracing the relationship appropriately. The banker should always come before borrower. Anyhow, my point is that the West just had appetizers in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Sigapore..etc. The main course is China. There is no need for Westerners to cause any confict but enjoy what China has to offer to the world.

Many hearts a cryin' from Mumbai to Bangalore, Pune to Delhi... Unrequited love... so sad, so sad.

Japan was a nation defeated by U.S when we nuked them. China is not defeated by us and why should china be our friend when the human history has a tradition of rival nations? Any so called emerging country China, India etc. are our rivals and enemies in next decade. The history has shown that each big nation looks for its dominance and there is no coperation when you are competing for the resouce. Its the economy stupid and know your enemies with the growing economy.

Wow, just few years ago, the US under bush tried to build US, India, Aussie, and Japan alliance to contain China. Today US abandon all of them to kiss China's ass. The rest will follow suit pretty soon, I guess.

I hope the American has a little bit more patience.
It takes time to change five thousand years of confusicus 's thinking.
American also has to respect other's culture and learn to live together.
Democracy may not suit for every country.
Capitalism with adjustment like China 's may be a new model to go.

He's absolutely right, but everyone already knows that, even those who don't want to admit it.

Haha, I read the article and then I realized its by none other than Bruce Einhorn. Now everything makes sense. The bias opinionated "facts" are crystal clear. Well done Bruce on your PRC propoganda job. But guess what, you didn't mention that a majority of Americans are weary of china and are in no mood to embrace them as "friends". Digest that first before you tout the sino-US relationship.

According to Beijing, controlling the unruly world including the terrorists is Washington's gig.

Asia has accounted for 50% of world GDP for most of human history. It dipped down to only 10% over the last two centuries, but is now on the way back up. That implies that China’s GDP will triple relative to our own from current levels. A $500 billion infrastructure oriented stimulus package enabled the Middle Kingdom to recover faster from the Great Recession than the West, and if this doesn’t work, they have another $500 billion package sitting on the shelf. But with GDP of only $4.3 trillion today, don’t count on China bailing out our $14.4 trillion economy. China is trying to free itself from an overdependence on exports by creating a domestic demand driven economy. The result will be 900 million Asians joining the global middle class who are all going to want cell phones, PC’s, and to live in big cities. Asia has a huge edge over the West with a very pro growth demographic pyramid. China needs to spend a further $2 trillion in infrastructure spending, and a new 75 story skyscraper is going up there every three hours! Some 1,000 years ago, the Silk Road was the world’s major trade route, and today intra Asian trade exceeds trade with the West. The commodity boom will accelerate as China withdraws supplies from the market for its own consumption, as it has already done with the rare earths. Climate change is going to become a contentious political issue, with per capita carbon emission at 19 tons in the US, compared to only 4.6 tons in China, but with all of the new growth coming from the later. Protectionism, pandemics, huge food and water shortages, and rising income inequality are other threats to growth. To me this all adds up to big core longs in China (FXI), commodities (DBC) and the 2X (DYY), food (DBA), and water (PHO).

What happened to democracy and free market capitalism? Why aren’t democratic nations the most important to America? I just wonder - what next.

Totally, totally not true. President Obama went India, and Mr. Huntsman is the newly confirmed US ambassador to India. The US-India relationship is the world's most important, with India in a senior position of the partnership. This is all because India is the world's largest and greatest democracy. Only democracy can have a US relationship because US is also a democracy, though a more junior one. Jai HInd!

C.H.Ng...you are a third class chinese in Malaysia. I pity you in a country of bumis.

i don't konw what to say about China though i am Chinese.

it is no doubt that it's look so well and so strong in economy aspect but it is not a fancy picture out there when we have our attention on personal living situation where gap between poor and rich is deepening so fast ..

and although we are working hard towarding a more harmonious society, the road to reach the target is still a far distance a away, i think

Sino-US ties may be the most important relationship for US, but it is not so for rest of the world. Sadly though the US may not gain anything from the Prez visit to China. It almost seems that US Prez has meekly surrendered to the wishes of China by not meeting the Dalai Lama and keeping low on other humanitarian issues. Just like the 19th century superpower, UK, is now a puppet of the 20th century superpower, US; I won't be surprised if history repeats itself and the 20th century superpower, US, becomes a puppet of the 21st century superpower, China.

See a surprsingly positive view of Obama's recent visit to China from the right-wing British newspaper, the Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/6621926/Barack-Obama-visit-signals-new-era-of-US-China-relations.html

Quite a contrast with the negativity in the US newspapers.

You guys will see Rob and friends soon when India PM MMS visit US this coming weeks. Expect the usual from the Indians such as the world largest democracy...oohh so shining...ohh is natural to become supapewer becoz ....and containtment! cotaintment of some imaginary bogeymen...blabla and bla.

BW kindly ensure putting up a topic for this. This is where we all can have some er...constructive fun. :))

Dun neglect the Indian give them the attention they deserve. Else they gonna blame someone again..pffftttt.

@Newbie...yes, you are correct; we Chinese (and other minority races) are treated like 2nd class citizen (or 3rd class to you) in our country. This is a true fact & I can't deny it but I can't understand why are you pitying me? For what?
Even though we might feel discriminated in our own country, I can safely say a great majority of us won't really take it at heart and/or turn ourselves to become radicals or extremists.

You may ask why is it so? The reason is because most Chinese are hardworking, realistic & practical. We care more about our own welfare, health & wealth. We got no time for trouble making or bother about other people's business. That's why I always said the westerners are wrong about their fear & concern about a rising China...not now, not another decade but maybe 30 years or so from now where her economy might be more than double that of the US. But then I am talking about economic mights, not military mights.

I totally agree when you say 'in China nobody goes hungry'. When you have so many killer coal mines, who needs hunger. Before chinese people look for food, they die in those mines.

To Hanyu Choi:
Not that I necessarily disagree with what you said, but it is always the Confucian tradition to stay humble and prudent. It worries me to see Chinese nationalists brags like nationalists of a (you know which) neighboring country counting all the eggs before they are hatched. You see, nothing can be taken for granted and nothing ever happens in a straight line. China has many domestic and international constraints that can slow her down in the coming years. And even when China exceeds the US in aggregate GDP, that alone doesn't make China a superpower since the US will still be light years ahead of China in terms of technology, innovation, education, cultural influence, political influence and other soft power factors. The US has already exceeded Great Britain in aggregate GDP as early as the 1890s, but the US did not act like a superpower until after WWII. In relative terms, China today is not even where the US were in the 1890s, so what China should do is to keep a low profile like the US did a hundred years ago.

I am in Guangdong,China.I am sure there are
Lots of white supremacists in congress,US, and that will undermine US-China relationship

When I read an BW report titled; Obama's visit to China made little progress ( The title may be little different), I laughed at it. I, as a Chinese, can testify his visit to China made a lot of Chinese friendly to US. Obama's new attitude to China is largely welcomed. There are difference between China and US, but we don't have fundamental issues. China does not want to be an enemy to US. Chairman Mao, who was a hardcore socialist, could take big actions to improve the bilateral relations, let alone today's China who has so many business connections with US. China and US have a lot more in common than in difference.

China suffered a lot from western world in recent history and Chinese are skeptical when dealing with western countries, especially the strongest one. I think it is understandable. US just needs some patience. I hope the relationship between the two countries can be better and better.

I know i am off the subject, but to solve davis' dilemma is easy, just formulate a taxation system with American characteristics, specifically a progressive tax table. United States' top tax rate currently is 35%, California top tax rate is 10.75%, Los Angeles County has a sale tax of 9.75%, soon to be 10.25%, property tax in California is 1.2% of the accessed value, certain new developed counties charge 1.8% plus all the bond issues, in addition we have utility tax (including electricity, phone, gas water, etc), excise tax, social security tax, medicare tax, disability tax, admission fees to state parks and national parks, toll road tax, passport fees, parking fees, btw the federal income tax is a universal tax (no matter where you work and where you live), etc, etc. when you die, your family has to estate tax. Freedom is not free. In another word, just tax the rich, that is the American way, and soon to be the Chinese way. All these taxes really help, to make a government bigger and bigger. BTW, our national defense budget is more than 1 trillion dollars per year, larger than the whole world combined and more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States. These are all good ideas that the Chinese government can learn from us.

I wish China and USA would really learn from history: Rome was not overrun by Hun but by its running dog Goth; Athene was not overun by Sparta but by its running dog Macedonia. China and USA should join hand to benefit each other instead of competing for fostering their own tomb-diggers. (Just look at Japan, totally defeated by USA in WWII, Japan is trying to back stab USA even USA is only slightly in trouble now.)

"US will still be light years ahead of China in terms of technology, innovation, education, cultural influence, political influence and other soft power factors." Are you speaking about reality or wishful thinking. China surpassed the U.S in internet users. China surpassed the U.S in auto consumption. China has influenced American politics(Obama ring a bell). China has cultural institutions(confucius) even in Africa. China has the largest foreign reserves in the world. China can wreck havoc in any country's economy through cyber warfare. It's not good for Westerners to think of China as a sleeping giant anymore. It has awoken for 60 years and now starting to compete for global respect.

Japan is not America's only running dog, another running dog in South Asia is much weaker but barks even louder.

To @Paul:
China has more people, so obviously she has more internet users and auto consumption. You can go on to say China exceeds the world in steel, cement, shipbuilding, blah, blah blah etc. but all you are talking about is just quantity. To be respected, China needs not just quantity but quality. Can you honestly say that China is equal to the US in technology, higher education, innovation, cultural influence and political influence? Can you say the average Chinese has the same standard of living as the average American? It's understandable for you to be proud of China's recent achievements but until China matches the West not just in quantity but also in quality, it is better for Chinese to stay humble.

I agreed with Paul & I would like to call on all mainlander Chinese to be more humble. Even though China has advanced & modernised tremenously since the last 30 years she had first opened out, she still lacks behind most of the developed countries in terms of technology, standard of living, quality & innovations.

Even though I am a Chinese (albeit not from the mainland) & proud of China's current modernisation, there are still many areas she & her people need to address before she can be truly & totally respected by the rest of the world. And one of which is her current youth generation who though is bright & intelligent, is too arrogant & think highly of themselves. This might be due to the country's one child policy where they became too pampered like a little emperor. I think it will lead to their weak point & caused their downfall if they still don't realised the virtue of humbleness.

I presume you mean Pakistan.

Everyone knows the answer except you. But no one is gonna tell you the correct answer. :-)