In an article, "Advantage, China. In This Match, They Play Us Better Than We Play Them," published in Washington Post, July 31, 2005, James McGregor, suggests formulating and pursuing intelligent policies for dealing with China.
According to McGregor, the Chinese government today understands America much better than U.S. government understands China. China's top leaders, diplomats and bureaucrats are focused and unified in formulating and implementing their policies toward U.S. In contrast, U.S. government's viewpoint on China is unfocused, fractured and often uninformed.
The 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre is no longer a political football for American politicians to kick back and forth. Now, China is all about unity, focus and leverage.
McGregor considers that U.S. and China have manageable differences and complimentary interests. The United States could help China and itself at the same time. The author offers some suggestions:
(1) Domestic politics should stop at the U.S. border. Trench warfare on China policy between the political parties and executive branch factions only plays into China's hands.
(2) Stop preaching instant democracy. America can best help China inch toward political pluralism by trying to strengthen China's court system and rule of law and by making visas plentiful again for Chinese to attend our universities and public policy forums.
(3) Don't interfere with Chinese purchase of or merge with U.S. companies unless the American company has genuine advanced military technology. It is ridiculous to pass the House resolution by 398 to 15 for national security concerns to oppose to the recent bid by China National Offshore Oil Corporation Ltd. (CNOOC) to purchase Unocal Corp. The deal will involve a scant 0.8 percent of U.S. oil production.
(4) Develop smart, workable rules on technology exports.
(5) Vigorously push trade issues that provide a long-term win-win for China and its trading partners. U.S. focus should be intellectual property rights (IPR) protection. Chinese piracy is rapidly undermining political support for China in Congress and hampering the growth of its most innovative companies.
James McGregor is a journalist-turned-businessman and former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China. His book, One Billion Customers: Lessons From the Front Lines of Doing Business in China (Simon & Schuster/ The Wall Street Journal Books) will be published in October.