Publisher's Synopsis
There is no question that one of United States' biggest foreign policy challenges is getting the relationship between the United States and China, and the rebalance to the Asia-Pacific, right. Today's hearing explores the U.S.-China relationship and, coming as it does just in advance of next month's U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, allows us to reflect on other issues beyond the Middle East that will also shape the 21st century. China is soon to become the world's largest economy, whether measured in purchasing price parity or raw GDP. Consider that more concrete has been poured in China in the past handful of years than in all of the United States during the 20th century. Eight of the world's 12-largest container ports are in China. China is on the move, but the question is: On the move to what? Will China become a trade partner committed to the enforcement of international law, or will we see 19th-century mercantilist behavior and the flouting of international norms? Will China help to support peace and stability in Asia or seek to overturn the order? Will China open space for its citizens to express their views and ideas, or will it continue, like Cuba, to brutally repress its own people?
