Time for renewed US policy toward China

BEIJING - With Barack Obama successfully defending his presidency in the US election and a new leadership of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) soon to be elected, it is the right time for the Obama Administration to rethink its policy on China.

More than three decades have passed since the normalization of China-US relations, which have witnessed significant progress in all fields, including politics, economy, anti-terrorism efforts, and people-to-people exchanges.

Relations between the two countries have become one of the most important in the world, and to some extent, this relationship can help best decide the future of the world order.

The momentum of China's development seems to be continuing, as the country has shown more certainty in politics with the upcoming election of a new CPC leadership, and its continued adherence to the guiding policy of reform and opening up. The increased political stability will safeguard the country's further development.

In his keynote report at the opening of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Thursday, Chinese leader Hu Jintao called for deepened reform and opening up in an all-around way, the guiding policy introduced in 1978 that gave birth to the country's all-round development.

Hu also promised to double the country's 2010 GDP by 2020. If the goal is achieved, which is quite promising, the economic gap between China and the US, the world's largest economy, will be greatly narrowed.

But China's development depends heavily on a peaceful and sound international environment, which is one of the key objectives of the country's foreign policy, and is also one of the most important common interests for both China and the US.

The re-election of Obama can ensure continuity of US policy towards China. In the past four years cooperation and exchanges between the two countries have grown.

At the same time, the US is uneasy about China's rise, which is the reason why some fierce anti-China rhetoric emerged in the presidential campaign and part of the reason for the US strategy of returning to the Asia Pacific region.

In fact, no matter who is elected president, US foreign policies on a strategic level have always shown a high degree of consistency. Containment or engagement policies have both been used towards China, and the US chooses from the two options mainly based on its perception that China is a threat to it.

Hu Jintao reiterated on Thursday that the country will unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development, and continue to hold high the banner of peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit and strive to uphold world peace and promote common development.

Cooperation between the two countries can help the international community to maintain world order and face up to common challenges like terrorism, climate change, the economic turbulence, among others.

Moreover, without China's participation, the international community cannot solve some issues which are of a high political nature, such as the Korean Peninsular nuclear issue, Iranian nuclear issue and so on.

The year 2012 is witnessing great events in the two biggest countries, but it is time for the US to rethink its strategy towards China in the long-term, and that is to engage with each other for a more peaceful and prosperous world.