Watchful and Wary: China's Hu Visits Bush

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interests in such cases as the North Korean nuclear stand-off, the Chinese military is expanding and may soon challenge the U.S. military's worldwide supremacy as a strategic competitor.

While the Bush Administration's drive to democratize the Middle East has run into serious problems, the idea that an authoritarian state like China can be both economically successful and internationally respected is in sharp contrast to the current opinion projected by the U.S. in the Middle East and elsewhere.

BIGGER PICTURE.

There will be no short-term reconciliations of these split images, thus the U.S.-China policy will be structurally affected by the debates about the different roles China plays, largely depending on where each one sits on a particular issue at a given time. Washington must be studied and sophisticated in its approach to China, and there are some signs that this is starting to happen. Relations are far more complicated than the black-and-white portrayal of China as communist monster, eager to usurp U.S. economic prosperity and play a dominant role in international affairs.

It is important for Americans to realize these tensions within themselves so they don't get lost in the trees without looking at the forest, in dealing with China. It is important for the Chinese to be aware of these different dimensions of U.S. understanding of China so it does not treat the United States as a monolithic, imperialist hegemon that has no other interests but to forge a global alliance to contain China's rise.

SOCIAL OCCASION.

So Hu's trip will be a platform upon which all these complex issues and psychological dramas play out in full. There will be ups and downs, tactical maneuvers from both sides to maximize their own interests, and heavy moments and light ones. If it's successful, at the end of the day, both countries will be talking, engaged, and managing their differences.

President Bush will not serve President Hu a banquet. And that is not necessarily a bad thing. Hu should be pleased that Bill Gates has invited him for dinner in his Seattle home. That will be a different type of engagement, and hopefully a relaxed experience for the important foreign trip Hu is about to take.

Wenran Jiang is associate professor of international political economy and acting director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta. Jiang is also a senior fellow of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, vice-president of the Canadian Consortium on Asia Pacific Security, and a board member of the Canadian Asian Studies Assn. He is a columnist for Asia Insight.