That’s Enough Nose-Tweaking : Interests of both Beijing and Washington demand some calm problem solving

Short of an open break, just about everything that could go bad in U.S. relations with China has gone bad, with intemperate comments and political posturing by officials in both Beijing and Washington adding to the strain almost daily.

Chinese leaders, plainly jockeying for advantage as they await the power redistribution expected after the ailing Deng Xiaoping dies, profess to believe that the United States is following a hostile policy aimed at “containing” China. The U.S. move to establish full relations with Vietnam, China’s historical enemy, has fueled suspicions that the American game is to isolate China by cementing ties with its neighbors and rivals. U.S. officials, meanwhile, point to China’s recent muscle-flexing around the disputed Spratly Islands in an oil-rich area of the South China Sea and its continuing military buildup as worrying signs of expansionism.

Two events last month thickened the frost that has descended over bilateral relations. President Lee Teng-hui of Taiwan was allowed to make an unofficial but widely covered visit to the United States, thereby setting off ferocious protests in Beijing and leading to the indefinite recall of its ambassador to Washington. At about the same time, Harry Wu, a Chinese-born U.S. citizen who has done much to publicize human rights abuses in his native land, bravely if naively tried to re-enter China. He is being held, accused of espionage.

Longtime congressional critics of China--and certainly there is much to criticize--thunder about responding with trade sanctions and other punitive measures. Many of these critics also harbor warm feelings toward Taiwan, whose interests in the United States are promoted by a well-financed and effective lobbying operation. As China’s stock in Congress has plunged, Taiwan’s has risen. One earnest of congressional affection will be the reception planned next week for Soong May-ling, known to several generations of Americans as Madame Chiang Kai-shek. Now 96, Mme. Chiang is the widow of the strongman whose two decades of corrupt and incompetent rule helped assure that the Communists would win China’s long civil war.

U.S.-China ties, it seems safe to forecast, will survive a cocktail party for an aged and largely forgotten symbol of past policies. The relationship has simply become too fundamental and economically complex to be sacrificed to exaggerated sensitivities or gratuitous nose-tweaking from either side. Wiser heads in both Washington and Beijing of course recognize that. The problems that exist with China are real and far-reaching. The interests of both countries demand that they be addressed seriously, substantively and coolly. It’s time to still the heated and insulting rhetoric.