US-China Relations - 144. page

Guo Xiangang, the Deputy Director of China’s Institute of International Studies, commented on the bill on China’s currency that is before the U.S. Senate, the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011. He observed that, in addition to political motivation because of the upcoming election year, the move occurred because the U.S. has its own problems. In particular, in recent years, China has surpassed Japan and become the No. 2 economy in the world. “The United States of course is No. 1. From the U.S. perspective, it has a sense of crisis, worrying that China will surpass the U.S. and become No. 1 in a few years. Therefore, it has been trying various approaches. One is to find fault with and attack China. A second is to reduce China’s growth rate, or even to contain China, believing that will slow down China’s growth.

Source: China National Radio, October 3, 2011
http://china.cnr.cn/qqhygbw/201110/t20111003_508576092_1.shtml

Study Times published an article stating that the recent U.S. arms sale to Taiwan was motivated by four factors. The first one is the core strategic interest of the U.S. to contain China by leveraging Taiwan. The U.S. conservatives consistently view China as its major strategic competitor, not a partner. The second factor is the significant U.S. economic interest in the arms sale. This new agreement to sell arms brings the entire amount of arms sales during the Obama administration to US$12.252 billion, topping previous administrations since the severance of the U.S. – Taiwan diplomatic relationship. The third factor is the domestic politics associated with the upcoming election. The economy and jobs are the most important issues in the election. The arms sale will allegedly result in over 80,000 jobs in the U.S. The fourth factor is the interplay of the domestic political forces in Taiwan.

Source: Study Times, October 3, 2011
http://www.studytimes.com.cn:9999/epaper/xxsb/html/2011/10/03/02/02_38.htm

On September 25, 2011, PLA Major General Luo Yuan told an audience of about 400 at the Wenhui newspaper lecture room, “I view the full range of strategic threats from the United States as the most major external threats to us.” Luo summarized the U.S. threats as the threat of the (democratic) system and the military threat. “The U.S. government spends $4.4 billion in strategic funds each year on foreign subversion, infiltration, and intervention. Previously, their targeted country was the former Soviet Union, but now their main target is China.” 

In his speech, Luo gave a detailed explanation of how China is facing U.S. military containment and why China must develop its military, build up its information armed forces, and prepare to win an information war.

Source: China Gate, October 3, 2011
http://www.wenxuecity.com/news/2011/10/03/1487698.html

(Ed. Note: The original article, which was published on Wenhui, is no longer available.)

Huanqiu, the official newspaper under People’s Daily, published a commentary on September 29, 2011, titled “Powerful Retaliations against the U.S. – Many Benefits with Little Downside.” The article suggests retaliating against the U.S. by suspending high-level dialogues, stopping all military exchanges, ending human rights dialogues, imposing sanctions against the companies that sold arms to Taiwan, reducing imports from the U.S., temporarily stopping the purchase of U.S. Treasury bonds, and even selling a small amount of the U.S. Treasury bonds, which is China’s “economic atomic bomb.”

The article suggests seizing the “god given” opportunity to “reverse China’s passive role in the arms sale to Taiwan problem.”

“Since China singles out the United States as the target for retaliation, which is morally justified, other Western countries will only watch without uniting together to besiege China.” “We are sure that the United States will not end its relationship with us. Currently, the U.S. needs us more than we need them.”

Source: Huanqiu, September 29, 2011
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/roll/2011-09/2045548.html

Huanqiu published an editorial advocating that China should take substantive actions to retaliate against the U.S. for its arms sale to Taiwan. “This would involve some risk. The worst result would be that the U.S. brings in China’s neighboring countries and reacts. The best result would be China taking action on one issue but having an overall impact throughout.” According to Huanqiu, the U.S. arms sale is the right issue. “China can retaliate in many ways. China can announce that it suspends all military exchanges with the U.S. In addition, China can announce that it launches investigations into the U.S. companies that participate in the arms sale and can sanction those companies. China can also reduce imports from the U.S. so that the number of the jobs lost would offset the number of the jobs gained in the arms sale. … What we need to do is to share the pain with the U.S, instead of China bearing the pain by itself. Let us believe: we can do it.”

Source: Huanqiu, September 24, 2011
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/roll/2011-09/2032110.html

On September 23, 2011, Huanqiu (the Chinese edition of Global Times), a state media under Xinhua, published an editorial titled “(China’s) Protest against the U.S. Arms Sale to Taiwan Should Not Be Limited to Words.” The article stated, “Our protest should be real, coupled with strong retaliatory measures.”

The article admitted that the U.S. arms sale to Taiwan is a problem that traces back to past years and cannot be stopped completely. “Let us fearlessly ‘tolerate’ the U.S. (arms sales to Taiwan) and also courageously retaliate against the United States. No matter what we do, nothing worse will happen. Several billion dollars worth of arms will not change the Taiwan Strait. If China kicks back at the United States for the Taiwan Strait, the Sino-U.S. relationship will not change either.”

The article contained a survey asking, “Should China increase its arms sales to the countries hostile to the U.S.?” It attracted thousands of responses. 37,026 participants (95.9%) agreed to increased arms sales to the enemies of the U.S., while 1,588 participants (4.1%) disagreed.

Source: Huanqiu, September 23, 2011
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/roll/2011-09/2028712.html

China Review News (CRN) recently published an article predicting that the United States and China will have more conflicts in the future. With the U.S. global policy arrangements on “the war against terror” and its “unilateralism” (a term often used in China referring to the U.S. acting without the support of other countries), the geo-strategic areas surrounding China are getting into more and more trouble. The article suggested that the the U.S. suffered a large loss of wealth as a result of the wars in which it was involved. While that involvement gave China a good opportunity to develop into the second largest economy in the world, the Obama Administration is now transferring more military attention to the Asia Pacific region. The downturn of both the U.S. and the EU economies is placing a large amount of pressure on China’s economic growth. The author believes that China cannot reach a strategic common understanding with the U.S. The fact that the U.S. is withdrawing from Afghanistan and Iraq and shifting its focus to China will establish the trend for the near future. There will be a tough road ahead, especially when the U.S. is entering a presidential election year.

Source: China Review News, September 19, 2011
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1018/3/6/1/101836139.html?coluid=148&kindid=0&docid=101836139&mdate=0919001955

Xinhua quoted the National Association for China’s Peaceful Unification (NACPU), which is based in Washington DC as strongly condemning the U.S. arms sale to Taiwan. NACPU claims that the oversea’s Chinese population in the Washington DC region strongly oppose the U.S. arms sale to Taiwan. Wu Huiqiu, president of the NACPU called it an “unwise decision” which “casts a shadow over the US-Sino relationship” and will “hinder the development of cross strait relations.”

On September 21, 2011, the U.S. announced the decision to sell arms to Taiwan. A number of times, China has strongly criticized and objected to the decision.

Source: Xinhua, September 22, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2011-09/22/c_122073286.htm