Another US-China Diplomatic Layer – Part II
I wrote about the possibility of yet another diplomatic platform for bilateral talks between China and the U.S. in February — see that post here.
Looks like they are definitely putting something together and will announce it soon (a heads-up from the Washington Post):
China and the United States have agreed in principle on the form of a new mechanism to replace the semi-annual, cabinet-level Strategic Economic Dialogue, a senior official said on Monday.
Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei told a news conference that Presidents Hu Jintao and Barack Obama were likely to announce what shape the dialogue would take when they meet in the margins of the G20 summit in London on April 2.
I guess the one bit of news here is that the new dialogue would replace the SED, not add yet another layer. Perhaps this is for the best as the SED was led (on the U.S. side) by the Treasury Secretary.
These days, I don’t think that Timmy Geithner has any extra time on his hands. Moreover, with his unfortunate comments about RMB manipulation earlier this year, he is definitely not the guy to lead the charge anyway — I doubt that Beijing feels warm and fuzzy towards him at the moment.
My vote would be to call upon new Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, who has a solid China background, to take a prominent role in bilateral talks. Since I’m in favor of it, it probably won’t happen.
The world’s OTHER ‘special relationship’ — between the US Treasury Dept and China seems to be weakening significantly. In part due to Geithner — but perhaps its also a sign of the maturing of the US-PRC relationship. I’d look at new emphasis on standard diplomatic dialogues going forward. The Chinese seem more comfortable with press conference trial balloons on economic policy initiatives. The real business of the G20 / G2 is international stability – not GDP growth. The US-PRC relationship is changing rapidly.