Less aggressive stance expected if senator named secretary of state
The diplomatic wisdom of incoming
US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to improve China-US relations, as
the Obama administration seeks to rebalance its Asian strategy during the
president's second term.
President Barack Obama on
Saturday nominated Senator Kerry, the son of a diplomat, as his next secretary
of state to replace Hillary Clinton, and commentators say that given his track
record and reputation, his appointment is almost certain to be confirmed.
Among the challenges facing Kerry
will be to improve ties between China and the US, which have worsened since
Washington's rebalancing policy in the Asia-Pacific region, experts said.
"China-US ties have
deteriorated through a series of high-profile measures by the US aimed at
rebalancing, especially the over-emphasis of military action, which triggered
great antipathy from China," said Ruan Zongze, a US studies researcher and
the deputy director of the China Institute of International Studies.
Kerry supported the Trans-Pacific
Partnership trade agreement, to "balance China's economic influence in the
region" in a speech at the Centre for American Progress before President Hu
Jintao's visit to the US in January 2011.
"Some called this
intensified US engagement in Asia a hedging strategy, an insurance against the
possibility of China emerging as a regional hegemony.
"Frankly, I don't care what
we call it. I just think it makes sense that we ought to do it", he said
then. During the address he appealed for maintaining a cooperative attitude
toward China, rather than one that treated China as an enemy or the cause of US
domestic problems.
"If China succeeds in
rebalancing its economy, then the global economy will benefit and so will
we," he said.
"If China fails - or worse,
if we cut ourselves off from China in a misguided attempt to 'contain it' as
some have suggested - then we will all suffer. And even though we can't call China
an ally today, we simply cannot treat it as an enemy."
Ruan views Kerry as professional,
calm and pragmatic, and expects him to initiate strategic dialogues between
China and the US, which will wield positive influence on Sino-US relations.
As the new secretary of state,
and a supporter of the Asian rebalancing strategy, Kerry would be less
aggressive than his predecessor Clinton, said Jin Canrong, an international
affairs professor at Renmin University of China.
In an era when being secretary of
state is increasingly about style as much as substance, many foreign-policy
experts said the five-term senator and quiet negotiator is expected to return
the office to a more traditional version of diplomacy, according to The
Christian Science Monitor.
The Vietnam veteran, who was
critical of the war after he returned home, lost to US president George W Bush
in the 2004 election.
He has represented Massachusetts
in the senate since 1985, and has served as chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee for decades.
During his first term, Obama sent
Kerry around the world on his behalf numerous times, particularly to
Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He also helped prepare the
president for his live TV debates during this year's election, and won praise
from Obama for his sharp national security-focused speech at the Democratic
National Convention in August, when he told delegates: "Ask Osama bin
Laden if he's better off now than he was four years ago."
Zhou Wa
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