The Hu-Obama Summit | Center for Strategic and International Studies

Hu is in town! Follow him with CSIS~The Hu-Obama Summit | Center for Strategic and International Studies

Just a starter

Q1: What is the significance of this summit?

A1: On January 19, Presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao will hold their eighth bilateral meeting, but only their second state visit (the others were all brief sessions on the margins of multilateral forums like APEC or the G-20). At the last full-fledged bilateral summit in Beijing in November 2009, President Obama hoped to open a more productive chapter in U.S.-China relations through a joint statement with President Hu noting areas of U.S.-China cooperation and highlighting each party’s “core interests.” In the months after the November summit, however, the administration found itself responding to a noticeably more assertive and less cooperative China. As a result, the administration spent much of 2010 reminding Beijing of the depth of U.S. strategic influence in Asia:

• After China’s passive response to North Korea’s attack on the South Korean corvette Choenan in March, the United States tightened security relations with Japan and Korea;
• In June, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates used the annual Shangri-La defense summit in Singapore to highlight the need for greater military transparency from China;
• In July, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used the annual ASEAN Regional Forum in Hanoi to stress U.S. interests in freedom of navigation in the South China Sea in response to Beijing’s pressure on smaller states in the region;
• In September, the United States reconfirmed its defense commitment to Japan with respect to the Senkaku/Diaoyutai after tensions rose between Tokyo and Beijing over the contested islands.

In short, this has been a rough year for U.S.-China relations; one characterized more by adjusting false expectations than making real progress on issues. Both U.S. and Chinese leaders hope this summit will now lay the foundation for a more productive relationship in 2011.